Stars GM Jim Nill pushed back Saturday on trade rumors linking Dallas to Zachary Werenski and Dylan Larkin.
"Some of the things you hear might not be true. I'll do my calls. We'll talk to teams. That's what we're going to work through over the next four or five days," Nill said.
That's not a flat denial. That's a GM who knows exactly what he's doing.
Dallas finished 50-20-12, third overall in the league with 112 points. They scored 278 goals and allowed only 226. On paper, this is already a complete team.
But they went 2-4 in six playoff games. That's the problem Nill is trying to solve.
Mikko Rantanen cost $12 million this season and posted a -8 rating in those six playoff games. That number is hard to ignore when you're evaluating what the roster actually needs.
Jason Robertson put up 45 goals and 96 points in the regular season. Wyatt Johnston added 45 goals and 86 points. The top six is not where Dallas is hurting.
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Werenski's $9.5M cap hit makes the Stars' math very complicated
Zachary Werenski carries a $9,583,333 cap hit, making him one of the five highest-paid defenders in the entire league. Absorbing that number means moving something significant out of Dallas first.
Miro Heiskanen is already locked in at $8,450,000. Thomas Harley sits at $4,000,000. Jake Oettinger at $8,250,000. The blue line budget is not exactly light.
Dylan Larkin is a different kind of conversation. He scored 34 goals and posted 67 points in 74 games for Detroit this season. Nine game-winning goals. That production doesn't come cheap, and Steve Yzerman isn't known for giving things away.
Detroit went 2-6-2 in their last ten regular-season games and got bounced without a playoff series win. Yzerman may be listening. Whether he's actually moving his captain is another matter entirely.
Here's what Nill's quote really tells you: he's not chasing headlines. He's running a process. Four or five days, quiet calls, real conversations. That's how the Stars have operated for years under his watch.
The pressure is real, though. A team that went 50-20-12 in the regular season and still couldn't advance deep in the playoffs has a roster question it hasn't answered yet.
Nill knows it. He just won't tell you which question he's trying to answer first.
Should the Stars trade for Dylan Larkin this offseason even if it costs them a top prospect?
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Trade confirmed for Jason Robertson and we just received an official announcement from Jim Nill
