Ever since former first-round pick
Mark Fistric had his seeming breakthrough 2009-10 season, he's been shuttling in and out of the Dallas Stars' long-term plans on defense. Yesterday, the team made clear that the impending unrestricted free agent was neither a part of the short-term or long-term plan. He was traded to the Edmonton Oilers for a third-round draft pick.
Fistric had a down year in 2010-11, the season following the campaign in which the hard-hitting defensive defenseman posted a plus-27 rating on a non-playoff team in which most of the regulars on the roster were minus-rated at the end of the year. Due to injuries and mediocre play in 2010-11, he fell out of favor with then-coach Marc Crawford. Despite the blueline as a whole being banged up that year, Fistric was a healthy scratch on may occasions and ended up dressing in just 57 games.
Last year, however, he seemed to get a fresh start under
Glen Gulutzan. While he had his share of ups and downs -- including a two-game suspension for a high hit that injured New York Islanders' forward Nino Niederreiter -- he also brought a much-needed physical presence to the blueline.
With the departure of Sheldon Souray after last year, there seemed to still be at least a third-pairing role available for Fistric. Taken on the whole, the Stars' blueline is rather undersized and perhaps even a bit soft in the physical department. Fistric has his limitations -- he's not a very good puckhandler or passer, and he needs some reminders not to get out of position while hunting for big hits -- but he can also be quite effective when his minutes are not overextended.
Personally, I thought there still should have been a place for him in the starting six this season. My reasoning was that if the Stars were not a playoff contender as the April 3 trade deadline approached, then by all means they should collect a draft pick in exchange for Fistric before he departed as a UFA over the summer. I think he'll do well as a role-playing D-man in Edmonton this season.
I'm sure the emergence of some of the younger defensemen in the Stars system had a lot to do with
Joe Nieuwendyk's decision to pull the plug on Fistric before the start of the season. It seems that the presence of
Brenden Dillon and offensive minded
Jordie Benn and the rapid progress being made by AHL rookies
Jamie Oleksiak and
Patrik Nemeth convinced the Stars there was no longer a spot for Fistric. Dillon (6-foot-3, 228 pounds), Nemeth (6-foot-4, 233 pounds) and the gargantuan Oleksiak (6-foot-7, 255 pounds) all have the potential to put to rest any concerns about an undersized blueline in the longer term.
But is Dillon better than Fistric right now? Is Jordie Benn strong enough defensively to hold up in the NHL or he is one of those borderline AHL-NHL offensive D ala Danny Syvret? At the very least, shouldn't there have been a little more in-season competition for someone to win a starting job away from Fistric?
Hockey is a game of attrition, especially from January onward, and there is no such thing as too many candidates to step in on defense. Personally, I think the Stars should have hung onto Fistric until some the kids proved on the ice that they deserved to knock him off the depth chart.
One of my biggest concerns for the Stars this year is that the roster shapes up as being simultaneously a little too old and a little too young to hold up to the breakneck pace and rapid game-to-game turnaround of the shortened season. Guess we'll find out soon.
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