No Wins, No Answers

After a regular season that seemed so promising, it all ended quickly for the Dallas Stars. The team was embarrassed in the playoffs, getting swept by the Anaheim Ducks – the eighth seed in the Western Conference. After winning the Central Division and Western Conference, the Stars were ready to make a long playoff charge. They were ready to finally break through and win their first championship in RHL history. Instead, they didn’t even win a game and are faced with major questions about their future.

They were close – in games 1, 2, and 3. They lost the first two in overtime at home, a stunning result that should have led to a strong response in Anaheim. Instead, the team blew a 2-1 lead in the third period and the writing was on the wall. The Stars skated to their own funeral in game 4, falling behind 2-0 in the first period and eventually succumbing to a 5-2 loss. There’s blame to go all around, with the initial reaction being criticism of goaltender Ilya Sorokin for posting just a 0.889 save percentage. The blueline in front of him did him no favors, combining leaky defense with slow veterans who were showing their age.

The defense has been a question for the team throughout the season, and GM cjo13 made a curious choice at the trade deadline. He opted not to bring on a top 4 defenseman to complement Mackenzie Weegar and Jared Spurgeon. Instead, depth options like Kevin Shattenkirk and Jarred Tinordi were added to give coach Gerard Gellant more options. While Shattenkirk was injured and missed the playoffs, the rest of the defense seemed outmatched. Spurgeon can no longer be counted on as a top pair option, and the rest of the defense – aside from Weegar – are #4/5 defensemen on most teams.

The Stars clearly need to improve their defense this offseason, but how they do it will be a mystery. First off, Weegar is a pending UFA but the team has expressed interest in re-signing him. But if they pay him the deal he’s expected to get, it is tough to see how they can afford to sign a UFA who would make an impact. They are also light on the kind of picks and prospects that they could dangle on the trade market to bring in a true top pair defenseman. Will the Stars continue to skate by with a shallow defense, or can they pull a rabbit out of a hat this offseason?

But truly, it might be time for the Stars to re-evaluate their strategy up front. They’ve tried to win for almost a decade with a core set of highly talented, highly paid forwards in Nikita Kucherov, Jack Eichel, William Nylander, and Kirill Kaprizov. They’ve only made the Cup finals once, and have floundered in recent seasons with this year’s sweep and missing the playoffs entirely two years ago. Is it time for Dallas to take a more balanced approach to lineup building? One thing is for sure, the status quo must be reset if they truly want to find themselves on a playoff run.