By: Chris Nosek
Last season, the Stars made the biggest headlines on the trade deadline when they acquired Mikko Rantanen from Carolina and then signed him to an 8-year contract extension. They went on to lose in the Conference Final for the third straight season.
This season, Jim Nill added Tyler Myers and Michael Bunting for the trade deadline. Myers will be a solid third-pairing defender, allowing Lyubushkin to be relied on for a lesser role. Bunting, on the other hand, is a reasonable add for the mid-to-lower six of the forward grouping. At 6′ and 185 pounds, he brings some physicality with a slight scoring touch. He has an average of 0.615 points per game for his career.
Nill got great value in adding these two players for three draft picks across three different drafts. These players were acquired for a 3rd-round pick in the upcoming 2026 draft, a 2nd-round pick in the 2027 draft, and a 4th-round pick in the 2029 draft. Not giving up any premium assets was a good thing. Unfortunately, these moves are not enough to significantly improve Dallas’ grade.
Their grade goes all the way back to last season when they fired Head Coach Pete DeBoer. As their coach, he got them to three straight Conference Finals and made the hard decisions. Firing him for correctly pulling Jake Oettinger and later backing that decision was a huge mistake for this organization. Then, they followed it up by adding a depth forward and a 3rd pairing defenseman. This simply isn’t good enough.
It is known that this team will have to get through both Colorado and Minnesota in the first two rounds. After freeing up the second half of Tyler Seguin’s cap hit, given the assets this team has, they needed to do something bigger. Oettinger proves time and time again that high-quality shooters can beat him. Dallas has to hope they can continue scoring in the playoffs the way they have during the regular season.
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