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STARS MAILBAG: What’s Jim Nill thinking about the trade deadline? And why isn’t Gemel Smith playing?

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With the NHL trade deadline a one month away, speculation and questions about how the Dallas Stars will approach Feb. 26 have become common, and rightfully so.

It’s a hot topic on social media, as a press corps we kick around ideas, and Stars general manager Jim Nill is often asked about it by local or national media members.

So, how are the Stars approaching the deadline, and is there any plan at this point?

Nill, who doesn’t like to divulge much about his plans, indicated there likely won’t be any major moves on the horizon.

“I like where our team is at, I keep getting asked, ‘are you going to make any moves?’ Well, we made a lot of moves this summer,” Nill said. “Sometimes you’ve got to let things come together, if you keep making changes, you can only make changes if there going to get better. In our business you’re always looking to get better, doesn’t happen all the time. I like where our team is at, I like how where we’re playing, I have confidence in how that’s going.”

And what about how the Stars are playing? Yes they lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs in a snoozer on Thursday, but prior to that they had points five straight games and are right in the middle of the Central Division playoff hunt.

“I like how we’re playing the games,” Nill said. “I think now when we go into a game I feel confident we have a chance to win. Now that doesn’t mean you are going to win every night, the other team wants to win to, and there is going to be bounces and some nights you aren’t going to have it. But I know the way we’re playing, our structure in our game, our commitment to be on the right side of the puck, we have a chance to win every game now.”

And with that, let’s get started on the mailbag…

It’s a combination of factors, and the biggest one comes down to trust.

Ken Hitchcock trusts Brett Ritchie and Devin Shore more than he trusts Gemel Smith. Right or wrong, that’s a fact that has been establish and it’s a massive hurdle that Smith likely isn’t going to clear without a bit of outside help.

And your roles vs. goals point is a good one. Smith doesn’t really have a special teams role on the Stars, a side effect of the lack of trust, while Ritchie and Shore both play a part in Hitchcock’s master plans for the power play.

Smith could have had a bigger role on the penalty kill, but Radek Faksa and Tyler Pitlick take every other shift when shorthanded. The other penalty killing minutes go to more skilled players now, Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn, meaning Smith has effectively been turned into a five-on-five player. And in that sense other players — Ritchie, Shore, even Jason Dickinson — bring more value to the coaching staff, since they can be used on special teams.

This isn’t a popular opinion, but it’s an opinion that is held by the people who make the decisions.

Because the belief is that Jason Dickinson will be a full-time NHL player before the end of this season, and it’s time for him to break through and earn a spot higher in the lineup.

From a management standpoint, they don’t see much more for Dickinson to accomplish in the AHL. From a coaching standpoint, they see the potential fill-in piece that makes life easier with a player like Martin Hanzal injured so often.

Either way Dickinson is going to be given a chance to play throughout this current Hanzal injury, and may even still have a spot when he comes back into the lineup.

By all indications the Stars aren’t going to carry eight defensemen once Marc Methot returns to the lineup, but who gets sent down is yet to be determined.

Dillon Heatherington could be the one sent to the AHL, that seems to make the most sense. If Methot is in they don’t need Heatherington and could always call him back up in case of an injury.

On the flip side, Julius Honka needs to play at some point. It’s an interesting situation, because Honka doesn’t get better in the AHL anymore — he doesn’t play the same game down there, and he really just toys with the puck when playing for the Texas Stars.

So what’s better? Playing in the AHL in spot where he mentally knows he can control the game with the puck on his stick, but sometimes looks jaded at the same time? Or keep him in the NHL as a scratch and hope it lights a fire for whenever he does get back into the lineup?

There really isn’t a right answer, and that’s frustrating.

The Stars already have an abundance of bottom-six players, so I don’t see any reason to acquire either Patrick Sharp or Colton Sceviour.

If the Stars don’t add a top-six winger, I don’t think they’ll add anything at all at the deadline.

Even if the Blackhawks went into sell mode, the player I would want, Anthony Duclair, isn’t available.

Dan Hamhuis isn’t getting traded.

This is a good case study, because Cole Ully and Nick Caamano are pretty comparable players based on their draft position and expected role when selected.

Ully was a fifth-round pick (131st overall) in 2013 and had 72 points in the WHL the year after he was drafted. Caamano is also a fifth-round pick, 146th overall in 2016, and had 64 points in the OHL the first year after he was drafted.

Both were considered project scorers and a perhaps a bit undersized at the time of their draft.

They differ in a couple areas, and this is why there are higher expectations for Caamano than Ully. Caamano is already a more physical player, has put on weight, and has filled out into his 6-foot-2 frame. Ully was never able to add that to his game, even though he worked hard to try and bulk up in each of the offseasons since the Stars drafted him.

Caamano also plays a better overall game than Ully did at this point in his career, and there is a feeling he can impact a game even if he doesn’t score.

Because the Stars had Denis Gurianov ranked higher than Matthew Barzal. Hindsight being 20-20, it was a mistake, but at the time the Stars had Gurianov ranked higher on their draft board and went with the player they believed was best available at No. 12.

And for the second-line center next season? It’s going to be Martin Hanzal on opening night. Who knows how long that will last.

He’s one the third-most game in NHL history with his way of thinking, don’t think an intervention of any sort is going to change that.

Personally I would start looking at options, in last week’s mailbag I threw out the idea of trading Julius Honka for Mark Stone. Realistically, I think the Stars are going to wait and see what happens at the end of this season and in the off-season, because there will be a belief that if they needed to trade Honka they still have ample time to do it.

Probably looks something like this on opening night:

Esa Lindell — John Klingberg
Marc Methot — Greg Pateryn
Dillon Heatherington — Stephen Johns

I think Miro Heiskanen will have a chance to win a job in training camp, but will ultimately start the season in the AHL and potentially earn an NHL spot within the first couple months — similar to what Klingberg did his rookie season.

I actually had a conversation with Jason Dickinson about this before his first game of the most recent call-up.

While the AHL referees are doing their best to make the same calls as the NHL, there are some areas that vary by crew in the AHL. Dickinson said with some AHL referees you can get away with more, while others are overly strict, it’s like learning an umpire’s strike zone in baseball. The same thing happens on face-offs in the AHL, Dickinson said players figure out the referee in the first period and then have an idea of what is and isn’t against the rules.

In the NHL the calls are a bit more uniform, there is a reason these officials aren’t in the AHL anymore, and there is less of an adjustment period or leeway. You also still have the occasional one-referee game in the AHL, so there are times where players can get away with much more in the minor leagues.

It’s more confusing than anything. We don’t know why he wasn’t invited to the Olympics and the Stars still don’t have much clarity on it.

Once we find out more we’ll be able to better judge whether it’s concerning or not.

The Stars knew what they were signing up for with Martin Hanzal, or at least they should have.

He averages close to 60 games per season, when they signed him all the data was out there that he is not consistently healthy.

Correct, Stars can start working on an extension for Seguin during this offseason.

I asked Scott this during the game on Thursday, he said he doesn’t have that type of influence. In fact since he now works for the Stars he no longer has a vote and can’t be a member of the PHWA.

He really is an entertaining hockey player.

I like both options, but Klingdog gets a slight edge.

Jurassic Park

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