Okay, I've been looking around the league for a landing spot that makes sense for Shatty and I may have found one.
Dallas has 3 RD under contract, Klingberg, Polak and Johns, but Johns didn't play at all last year due to post-traumatic headaches. He is supposedly feeling better and looking good, but there's a possibility that they will need/want another RD if they aren't sure he'll be ready for the season.
Dallas Stars Daily Links: Is Stephen Johns On The Brink Of Return?
How the Stars feel about Johns’ status at the end of this month is going to greatly impact how they approach the offseason. If Johns is healthy and can play at the level he was at two seasons ago, the Stars are in a pretty comfortable spot on defense. If Johns isn’t ready to go, the Stars have a rather large hole to fill.
“It’s a financial jigsaw,” Nill said. “We got probably two spots (for unrestricted free agents), and how much money is going to go to those two spots? And how do you allocate it? And Stephen Johns’ injury comes into play and what’s available (on the market).”
Last year Dallas was the 2nd best defensive team in the league without Johns. Their PP was good (21%), but they are losing Spezza, who had more PP points (12) than Benn (11) and Heiskanen (8). Shattenkirk could give them another option if they don't want to overload Heiskanen, and they can shelter him 5 on 5.
Dallas' other RD options are Honka (RFA), a couple minor leaguers, or they could re-sign one of Lovejoy or Fedun. I've got to think (hope) that Shatty is a more attractive option for them, especially if it doesn't add significant cap.
So, I propose several different deals. They can take whichever they like best.
- Shatty@75% (4.9875 mil for 2 years) for Hanzel (4.75 mil for 1 year)
- Shatty@50% (3.325 mil for 2 years) for Cogliano (3.25 mil for 2 years)
- Shatty@50% (3.325 mil for 2 years) for Nichushkin (2.95 mil for 1 year)
- Shatty@50% (3.325 mil for 2 years) for Comeau (2.4 mil for 2 years)
None of these deals save us much on the cap this year, but they get rid of Shatty, freeing up a spot on defense. Smith can play the right side if Fox needs time in the AHL, or he can be a spare D/13th forward.
The cap adds for Dallas are minimal, at worst (925k) the cost of a typical replacement player. If necessary, we could retain more in the Hanzel deal so that they are actually saving cap. Dallas might need to add a pick for some of these, but nothing significant, I don't think.
If we do the Nichushkin deal, we can keep him for a year and hope he breaks out, or buy him out. He's only 24, so the buyout is only 1/3rd. The cap hits would be 700k this year and 450k next year.
The other buyouts aren't that bad either.
Shatty gets to play on a likely playoff team for a couple years (and probably with Zucc) and we get a little bit of savings while shifting some money from defense to offense.
If we want to expand the deal, they include the 18th overall, we include Kreider at 50%, and we take Hanzel and Nichushkin and buy them both out.
Thoughts?
