5 best fits for James van Riemsdyk in NHL free agency
By Simon Vacca
4. Dallas Stars
The Dallas Stars shall look to add to their roster over the course of the offseason. The team’s lack of depth became apparent toward the bitter end of their 2017-18 campaign, as an ugly eight-game losing streak was the central avenue through which Ken Hitchcock’s men failed to qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs.
The retirement of “Hitch” and the ensuing hiring of head coach Jim Montgomery are sure signs that the organization will aim to turn things around and usher forth a newfound culture of winning ways. In order to achieve this prospect, the team shall have to introduce some pieces to its offense.
Although last season’s blue line was middle tier at best and lower tier at worst, few would doubt the notion that the Stars’ defense can be defined by one word: potential. John Klingberg recently made a strong case for Norris Trophy contention, while the likes of Stephen Johns, Julius Honka, Esa Lindell and Miro Heiskanen — a former third overall pick at the 2017 NHL Entry Draft — illustrate the degree to which the Stars have lined up a promising back end in a responsible manner. That Ben Bishop is more than capable of stealing games is further proof of the team’s capacity to be defensively sound in the years to come.
As such, the Stars should look to direct a reasonable portion of their cap space toward adding some much needed secondary scoring. While they’ll have to be careful in navigating this endeavor — especially considering the fact that players such as Honka, Lindell and Tyler Seguin are due for contracts in the not-so-distant future — a massive name like van Riemsdyk could provide the franchise with the final spark that they’ve missed out on for the past few seasons.
Even though the aforementioned Seguin, Jamie Benn, Alexander Radulov, Mattias Janmark and Radek Faksa are all valuable offensive pieces for an organization that’s straining the edges of becoming a legitimate contender, it’s tricky to argue that the Stars can make do with what they have for another set of 82 games or more. And although his two-way game can be rather weak, JVR’s gentle hands and dangerous presence in front of the net would provide Dallas with a consistent scoring threat that, at times, was a non-factor outside of the team’s top line(s) last year.