Radulov Almost Gets Demands in Dallas

Another big update from the Dallas Stars on Monday, as I am getting closer and closer to being caught up from this whirlwind of action!  The Stars wrangled in forward Alexander Radulov to their rodeo, adding another significant piece of offense to their already potent club.

Radulov was said to be looking for an extra-long contract with some very serious money, but the Stars got him down to something a little more manageable, signing the enigmatic winger to a 5-year, $31.25 million deal, a $6.25 million cap hit per season.

The 31-year old Russian made a triumphant return to the NHL with the Montreal Canadiens last season, finishing 92nd overall in pool scoring, 67th among all forwards with 18 goals and 54 points in 76 games.  Unfortunately for the Canadiens, his contract demands were far too high and likely what he received from the Stars was a little too rich for their blood as well.

The addition of Radulov to their team makes for a very interesting group of forwards, hell bent on scoring next season.  If you're pairing off centres and wings, you would be looking at Benn-Seguin and possibly Spezza-Radulov and even go so far as Hanzal-Roussel on the 3rd line and then you're probably complimenting each line with some youth.  It's quite the setup they have there and now that they have some more defense in place, this team is starting to look more intriguing.

Forwards	Cap	Defense	Cap	Goalies	Cap
Jamie Benn	9.500	Marc Methot	4.900	Kari Lehtonen	5.900
Jason Spezza	7.500	John Klingberg	4.250	Ben Bishop	4.917
Alexander Radulov	6.250	Dan Hamhuis	3.750
Tyler Seguin	5.750	Esa Lindell	2.200
Martin Hanzal	4.750	Patrik Nemeth	0.945
Antoine Roussel	2.000	Julius Honka	0.863
Tyler Pitlick	1.000	Greg Pateryn	0.850
Jason Dickinson	0.894
Devin Shore	0.870
Remi Elie	0.745
Curtis McKenzie	0.700
MattIas Janmark	0.700
Brian Flynn	0.700
Adam Cracknell	0.675

The Stars are now running with the big dogs, in terms of the number of big contracts on their books and they will have to rely on some good smaller contracts to make this season truly work for them.  With Radulov under contract and a 23-man projected roster assembled above, they are looking at only $2.9 million in cap space for wiggle room, give or take a couple transactions through the year.

As a proven flight risk, Radulov getting a 5-year deal is always going to be scary, but now that he's committed to the NHL again, it might work out for the Stars after all.  I'm still not prepared to hand the Stars any trophies or even a guaranteed berth into the playoffs, but I still like the additions of Hanzal and Methot, it's something that could truly work for them.