I talked to a Dallas source last night, who told me the team is looking to add a proven defensive defenseman who can add some toughness to the lower end of their blueline. The source added that although the team believes it can compete for a playoff spot with its top five or six defensemen, they feel they can use some added toughness and a little more depth.
The Dallas Stars won their second game of the season the other night, topping the Washington Capitals. The most memorable play of the game, however, was one in which Nicklas Backstrom inadvertently crosschecked Kari Lehtonen in the head and the Caps had a would-be goal disallowed as a result.
No Stars player went after Backstrom, which was a bit disturbing for two reasons. For one, it is one of hockey's oldest unwritten rules to defend your goalie at all costs. Accidentally or not, no one should be able to make that sort of contact with your goaltender, especially one who has arguably been the team's most valuable player when healthy the last few years but has a pretty extensive injury history. Secondly, if other teams know there is no price to pay for crashing the net and possibly running over the goalie, future incidents might not be quite so inadvertent.
Even before the season started, the Stars were said to be looking to add to the bottom end of their starting blueline, where the current options for the sixth spot are Jordie Benn, Kevin Connauton and (when cleared to play) Aaron Rome. While all three players are capable of filling the final starting spot adequately, each has his own limitations.
Depth wise, when there is an injury in the top five, the team will be in a situation where two of these players will be in the starting lineup; not an ideal situation. Also, when looked at on the whole, the Stars blueline outside of Brenden Dillon is a bit lacking in terms of physical play and/or intimidation factor.
Keep an eye on this in the weeks to come, because I think the Stars could be the first NHL team to make a deal for one of the veteran starting defensemen on the market.
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