We’ve seen it over and over in the first few paragraphs of the recap articles about every trade the Dallas Stars made up until this trade deadline: we put ourselves in this position. In other words, these moves were avoidable. But we can’t go back and undo the past. So the best we can do now is take a moment to evaluate if, overall, these moves will be good for the Stars or not.
First of all, let’s consider the issue that got the Stars into this mess in the first place: poor play this season. While it seems to have roots in every zone of the ice for the Stars, it really all starts in the defensive end.