*Photo from Canucks Army*
The Dallas Stars have had an offseason of additions, as they look to get back to the playoffs, headlined by a lot of goalie depth. Last season, the Stars finished in 5th place in the Discover Central Division, missing the playoffs with a 23-19-14 record.
The first big subtraction of the offseason came on the defense, when, as a result of extending Miro Heiskanen, they lost Jamie Oleksiak in the expansion draft. Right shot D Sami Vatanen hit free agency and hasn't found a home yet. They also traded C Jason Dickinson to the Canucks, and lost LW Andrew Cogliano in free agency to the Sharks.
In an effort to replace Vatanen and Oleksiak on the back end, they signed defenseman Jani Hakanpaa and left shot D Ryan Suter to multi year deals in the hopes that they can stabilize the production on defense. They also signed C Luke Glendening and LW Michael Raffl to compensate for losing Dickinson and Cogliano.
Now, we get to the goalies. They already had 3. Anton Khudobin, coming off a down year, Ben Bishop, who didn't play last year due to injury, and Jake Oettinger, coming off a strong rookie season as a backup to Khudobin. They added to the goalie picture even more, signing Braden Holtby to a one year deal.
The big question is, how will the Stars give these goalies playing time? Bishop would be the starter if healthy, but no knows if he will be, because he is very injury prone, and is still hurt. Khudobin is next up, but he's coming off a down season, but has a modified no trade clause. Oettinger has proven he is NHL ready, so where does that leave Holtby? In the stands as a healthy scratch?
The Stars look to make it back to the playoffs after a bit of a down season last year, but any success will come on whether or not the offense can score goals. And they better hope Khudobin can have a bounce back year, and that Bishop can stay healthy.
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