Dallas, TX - GM Junya Kato finalized the trade for underrated Ryan Spooner (which was an overpay, for now) completing the offseason roster moves for the Dallas Stars.  This move was a little unexpected, even to the GM himself.  Kato did not know Spooner was on the martket, but when the Stoners annouced it, Kato jumped at the opportunity.  This capped off an offseason that he didn't expect.

The Stars have their core of Kane, Scheifele, O'Reilly, and Couturier up front to go along with Pietrangelo, Spurgeon, Ellis, and Werenski manning the blue line.  They have the best center group along with the best defensive group in the league, but this left huge holes on the wings and net.  Kato was hoping that some of the young players like Burakovsky, Kapanen, Ho-Sang, and Scherbak would be able to make a big impact, but looks as though it will not be this year.  With minimal cap room to add multiple top tier players, Kato had his hopes set low.

First thing he wanted to do sure up the goalie position.  The market was very weak with only 1 elite goalie, so Kato went with the safe route and made an early bid on Ryan Miller.  To his, and other GMs, astonishment, his original $5mil bid had won.  "I set aside $10mil for the goalie position after seeing last year," Kato said. 

The next dominoe to fall was RFA Ryan O'Reilly was sent an offer sheet of $2,999,999, which Kato gladly accepted.  "This was also unexpected,"  Kato said with a grin on his face, "the savings we got from Miller and Ryno, allowed us to go after Danny (Sedin)."

Following the signing of Daniel Sedin to a very reasonable contract, they also added Carl Soderberg and Blake Comeau to their other depth pieces.

Here is the projected lineup:

With some great balance on the team, the Stars will make a push for the cup.  Kato hopes that he can break the streak of 1-and-dones at 2.  When asked about the early exits Kato stated, "I hear it all the time from the loser GMs.  All the good ones know how hard it is to make a deep run with all the very good teams out there." 

After the dust settled on free agency, the Stars came out shining.  This year, like the others, will be a disappointment if they don't make a deep run.