The Dallas Stars might have to shed some salary if they hope to retain Max Domi or Evgenii Dadonov or look elsewhere to bolster their roster for 2023-24.
Entering the off-season following their elimination in the Western Conference final, the Dallas Stars could be forced to shed some salary if they hope to bolster their roster for next season.
CapFriendly shows the Stars with just about $7.39 million in projected cap space with 17 roster players under contract for 2023-24. All their core players are signed for next season, but there's not much room to re-sign RFA Ty Dellandrea and UFAs like Max Domi and Evgenii Dadonov.
Domi and Dadonov were trade-deadline acquisitions who fit in well over the remainder of the season and during the Stars' post-season run. Joseph Hoyt of The Dallas Morning News wondered if sufficient cap space could be cleared to re-sign one or both.
ESPN.com's Ryan S. Clark believes it's possible for the Stars to shed some salary to retain Domi and/or Dadonov. Daily Faceoff's Mike McKenna suggested peddling veteran forward Radek Faksa, who carries an average annual value of $3.25 million through 2024-25 and carries a five-team no-trade list.
The Athletic's Saad Yousef suggested the Stars could draw on their prospect pipeline to fill the gaps, citing Wyatt Johnston's solid rookie season and Thomas Harley's late-season improvement. Hoyt wondered if promising center Mavrik Bourque would get an opportunity to crack the lineup.
On his 32 Thoughts podcast on Wednesday, Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman suggested the possibility of buying out Ryan Suter. The 38-year-old defenseman has two years remaining on his contract.
Buying out Suter would count as $783,333 per season for the first two years against their cap and $1.433-million annually for the final two years. However, Friedman wondered who would replace his minutes as Miro Heiskanen's defense partner.