Down and Out: Dallas Stars will be among offseason's busiest teams

With the Dallas Stars not renewing Rick Bowness’s contract as head coach, and several players ready to be paid, where do the Stars go from here?

The Stars had themselves a mediocre year. They were bounced in the first round of the playoffs by the Calgary Flames after a hard-fought seven-game series. With Bowness gone, the Stars now need to find a new face behind the bench. Not only that, but they have a number of player contracts due, one being restricted free agent Jason Robertson, who proved this past season he can be an elite NHL player.

Frank Seravalli and Matt Larkin continued the Down and Out series on The Daily Faceoff Show, looking into the Stars’ offseason plans, what their biggest areas of concern might be and how they can improve.

Frank Seravalli: First, at the top of the priority list Matt is the coaching search. They’ve got Rick Bowness, they did not renew his contract, a lot of talk through the regular season about Rick Bowness retiring. But he has made it known since then, while he won’t be back with Dallas, that he would like to continue as an NHL coach and he has been around for a long long time. But there’s an interesting offseason coming in the sense for the Stars, they’ve got some guys to pay, Jason Robertson coming off an incredible season for the Stars is probably pretty high up on that priority list after getting the coach done.

Matt Larkin: That’s right, and you know, it’s funny, this offseason reminds me a little bit of the situation the Stars were in two years ago when they had three important RFA’s. At the time it was Radek Faksa, Roope Hintz and Denis Gurianov, and because they had to focus on those RFAs they really couldn’t do much in terms of improving the team. They ended up missing the playoffs the following season. They’re in a similar boat now, where of course Jason Robertson and Jake Oettinger, who really spiked his value in the playoffs, they need their big new contracts. I think Jason Robertson especially will be the one who gets paid. He’s shown he’s going to be an elite player in the NHL.

So, the Stars have to focus on those contracts, they don’t have that much cap space — I think it’s somewhere in the $17 million range — by the time they get those key RFA’s signed, is there that much room to make improvements? That’s before you even factor in the idea of maybe wanting to re-sign John Klingberg. I don’t think that’s going to happen, I don’t think it’s possible, he’s a right-handed shot and he is ninth in all defenseman scoring in the past five years, he’s going to get a big number on the open market. You’re looking at the rest of this core, you have Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin who are becoming albatrosses, let’s face it, together that’s more than $19 million. Both players have had hip surgeries, they’re relatively old for their age at 30 and 32, respectively. I’m just not seeing a team that can improve easily. The RFAs are going to be priority, but is there going to be money left over to do anything else?

Frank Seravalli: Yeah, totally agree. They’re not becoming albatrosses, they have kind of been albatrosses and anchors for the last little while here, giving you second- and third-line type production at those type of salary-cap numbers, it’s been a huge sticking point for the Stars. Now needing to pay Robertson, probably unable to keep John Klingberg as you mentioned, I add all those things up not knowing how they would replace those guys, or at least replace Klingberg — is there a chance the Stars take a step back next season?

Matt Larkin: I mean it’s entirely possible. You know what, I look at the Ryan Suter contract as a major mistake. Again, I think it was foresight 20-20, I thought it at the moment, it’s not like he had a lot of leverage coming off being bought out, being 37 years old, why did Jim Nill have to give him three years? Now I’m sure you’re regretting that contract because that could be what makes the difference in terms of signing or not being able to sign John Klingberg. You have two years left now for Suter who is 37 years old and making $3.65 million. I feel like the Stars could really use that money right now.

Frank Seravalli: Yeah, it wasn’t the dollars, it was the term for Suter that really stood out. You’re right, Suter probably gets you a little less than half of what it would take to keep Klingberg and all of a sudden your team is in a tough spot now. Going to be an interesting summer for the Dallas Stars, a coaching search, and you know there has been some chatter, is Jim Nill on the hot seat. This summer will tell a lot about his future and the team’s future in Big D.

You can watch the full video here…