Free agency in the National Hockey League has forever been a torrid struggle between hindsight and foresight. It’s the foresight to go all in and sign players that look great on paper versus the hindsight to eventually regret the making the transaction at all.
The Dallas Stars have, through 15 games in the 2017-18 season, fallen victim to this eternal stalemate. For four years at $4.75 million each, general manager Jim Nill and the Stars inked defensive center Martin Hanzal to a contract using foresight, only to reap few benefits in hindsight.
Martin Hanzal has truly been an afterthought in the first segment of the Stars’ schedule, something you do not want to see out of a player that garnered as much cash on the free market as he did.