Dallas Stars: Sustainability may be biggest accomplishment of offseason

The Dallas Stars just had an offseason of epic proportions but their greatest accomplishment may not be the talent they acquired but rather the sustainability of it.

The Dallas Stars have been a roller coaster of a team as of late. After logging 109 points and making the playoffs as the top seed in the west, the Stars fell back to earth last season, tallying only 79 points and a place on the coach come playoff time.

But this summer, in the offseason to end all offseasons, the Dallas Stars kicked that pendulum back the other direction, drafting, signing, and trading their way into the Stanley Cup conversation once again. The young Dallas core of Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin, and John Klingberg remain healthy and intact.

Joining the team next season will be RW Alexander Radulov, D Marc Methot, C Martin Hanzal, and of course, G Ben Bishop. These players, combined with the already deep bench the Stars enjoy, have made the Stars not only contenders again, but likely favorites entering the 2017-18 NHL season.

Offseason Winners?

Admittedly, winners of the offseason are rarely winners of the postseason. That’s because any idiot can throw money at free agency and bring in the big fish. And anyone can trade away assets to get those most coveted trade targets, as well.

But not everyone can win the offseason through flugal spending, savvy dealing, and sustainable payrolls.

The most impressive thing about the overhaul the Dallas Stars just undertook is that the team just got better in the short-term AND the long-term. The sustainability is staggering.

The Dallas Stars are clearly one of the most skilled teams in the NHL. They have two of the highest scoring forwards in the league (Benn and Seguin), one of the highest scoring defensemen in the league (Klingsberg), and now they have arguably the best netminder in the league (Bishop). They added big names and complementary pieces to smart contracts, and in the background, their lower levels are loaded with prospects.

The Contracts

The Dallas Stars have Jamie Benn under contract through 2025, so he’s not going anywhere. Klingberg is under contract until summer of 2022 and Tyler Seguin is locked up through 2019.

The most significant signing for the Dallas Stars this season was goalie Ben Bishop. Bishop actually signed a below-market deal to play with the Stars. It carries a no movement clause for three seasons and has a cap hit of roughly $4.9M per season until the conclusion of the 2022-23 season (Thanks to Spotrec.com for all the contract info).

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Alexander Radulov was the biggest signing, offering the most risk and potentially the most reward. His 5-year/$31, 250,000 deal runs out in 2022 ensuring the Stars have all of their top firepower locked up well into the next decade.

Dallas also signed center Martin Hanzal to a 3-year/ $14,250,000 contract this summer. Marc Methot is signed to a moderately priced deal that expires following the 2018-19 season. He’ll come off the books the same year Jason Spezza does and collectively they’ll free up about $12 million.

That’s $12 million that can be reinvested in a certain superstar free agent named Tyler Seguin.

The math works. For every player they may have overpaid for, there are two or three more they underpaid for. And since the lower levels are stacked with prospects, one can assume Dallas will have no issues filling in the gaps along the way.

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Stanley Cup or Bust

Professional sports are all about championships. And having a championship or bust mentality is perfectly excuseable considering the value of a title. The Dallas Stars understand this and have gone all-in this offseason. But what seperates Dallas from so many other offseason winners is the Stars didn’t mortgage their future to do so.

Under Jim Nill and a very supportive ownership group, the Dallas Stars built from the bottom up an extremely sustainable roster. It should be a roster that can contend for the next 5-7 seasons if things progress the way we think they will.

Next: Epic offseason likely to yield epic results for Stars

This offseason was simply amazing for the Dallas Stars. But looking deeper, it was nothing short of spectacular given the sustainability of the changes. Welcome back Ken Hitchcock, you just walked into a dream scenario.