Now that the smoke has cleared from Tuesday's trades of Jaromir Jagr to Boston and Derek Roy to Vancouver, the Dallas Stars still officially have a matter of a few hours left to decide if they will make additional moves prior to Wednesday's 2 p.m. NHL Trade Deadline or if they will stand pat and be happy with the moves they've made thus far.
Stars General Manager Joe Nieuwendyk was asked Tuesday afternoon if the club was done wheeling and dealing after a busy Tuesday and here's his response.
"Well, that's a good question. I wake up every day and I and figure out ways to make this organization and this team better and that's what I'll do tomorrow [Wednesday] morning as well," Nieuwendyk said. "I realize there's a deadline tomorrow but my phone will be open and we'll keep our eyes and ears [open]."
Dallas has already cleared out the expiring contracts of winger Michael Ryder (Montreal), now former captain Brenden Morrow (Pittsburgh) plus Tuesday's deals involving Jagr (Boston) and Roy (Vancouver), whom the club acquired in a deal for fan favorite Steve Ott with Buffalo over the summer.
Now that Nieuwendyk and Company have cleared out four expiring contracts, to this writer's knowledge there is just one player with an expiring deal and that happens to be winger Eric Nystrom, who has been skating with Dallas' first line most recently and is a solid grinder who can contribute some offense but whose work ethic is unquestioned.
Current Stars head coach Glen Gulutzan loves Nystrom or "Nys" as everyone calls him which might count for something were Gully's job status seriously being in question should Dallas miss the playoffs for a fifth straight season. Gully is also in that realm of expiring contracts as his original deal to coach the Stars was two years in length and expires at the end of this season.
Some have speculated that Dallas might try to move its most veteran defenseman in Stephane Robidas but doubt that's going to happen. "Robi" has been a great influence on the club's younger d-men, especially on phenom Brenden Dillon, who even lived at Robidas' house for a good stretch before getting a place of his own and the Stars brass want an experienced guy there to be able to deliver sage advice when needed to these younger guys at the blueline.
So, if the Stars aren't trading Robidas, then what about dealing either Trevor Daley or Alex Goligoski? Well, both were signed to contract extensions not that long ago, something that teams interested in acquiring them would have to consider and from what little information is out there, it doesn't appear that the Stars are fielding many calls regarding the likes of Dales or Goose.
Both are solid puck-moving defensemen. Daley has actually played pretty well this year and Goligoski, although he has had his share of hiccups this year in the back in the way of turnovers, has been more consistent and is definitely contributing on the offensive end as the Stars' current assist leader with 18 helpers, righteous production from a d-man.
Daley and Goligoski have been paired together for a good part of this season and it's clear the organization's brass have a definite affinity for these two similar defensemen.
However, Jagr and Roy weren't the only Stars to be dealt on Tuesday. Later in the day, the club announced it had traded Czech-born winger Tomas Vincour to Colorado for young defenseman Cameron Gaunce. Vincour had his fair share of chances with the Stars under both Marc Crawford and Gulutzan and just never could break through to earn consistent minutes.
And there was the issue of turnovers when it came to "Vinny". It pained Gulutzan, who also coached Vincour in the AHL, to move his young winger but with a recent rash of turnovers or near-turnovers, it was abundantly clear that he just didn't trust No. 81 on the ice and that Vincour had indeed reached the end of his rope in Dallas, so he was traded.
But when the NHL Trade Deadline comes and goes at 2 p.m. Wednesday, it's very likely all will be quiet in Frisco. Then again, if Nieuwendyk has his socks knocked off by an offer for Nystrom or maybe several other names on his current roster, then he might pull the trigger on another deal but for a guy who has already traded the likes of Ryder, Morrow, Jagr, Roy and even Vincour, the Dallas GM can now take a deep breath and see what these young kids who have been called up have in the tank, similar to the end of last season when we got our first looks at the likes of Dillon and Reilly Smith.
