Andrew's Dallas Stars Blog
Thoughts on Burish, Raycroft
/Andrew's Dallas Stars Page
Well, the Stars made a little noise on the first day of free agency after all. I wasn't surprised they got a goaltender. I thought they needed a guy with some NHL experience and Andrew Raycroft is a good netminder for that role. He's been a backup and he's been a starter. It will create some competition in camp with Brent Krahn for the backup job to Kari Lehtonen. So, that's a good thing.
Adam Burish was a surprise. I think the Stars have wanted to upgrade the bottom 6 forwards and Burish is someone they think will help them do that. He's abrasive, gritty, energetic and he's got some good speed. Plus, he's been on a team that's won a lot the the last two seasons, including a Stanley Cup this season. He's not going to bring a ton of offense, but he'll bring some other qualities a team needs. Teams need good role players and he's shown he can do that on a successful team.
As for the roster and money, they've got 19 likely roster players now at $40 million in salary costs and their budget is about $45 million. The restricted free agents include James Neal, Nicklas Grossman, Matt Niskanen and Fabian Brunnstrom. And they still haven't ruled out signing unrestricted free agent Jere Lehtinen.
You do the math. They can't fit all those players in a 23-man roster and they aren't going to get everybody signed without going over $45 million in salary for the roster. In other words, they are going to have to do some tweaking or somebody is going to end up going to the minors and getting exposed to waivers.
Of course, it's a long summer and there's a lot of time between now and the beginning of the season. There could be deals to be made. It's still a work in progress.
Here's a look at the players and their 2010-11 salaries and not their cap costs. The players are basically listed in order of payroll and not in any kind of line combinations or pairings. Raycroft's $700,000 salary is used for the goaltender calculation.
| Likely Roster Players Under Contract for 2010-11 | ||
| Forwards | ||
|
Brenden Morrow $4,100,000 |
Brad
Richards $7,800,000 |
Loui
Eriksson $3,200,000 |
| Steve
Ott $2,100,000 |
Mike
Ribeiro $5,000,000 |
Adam
Burish $1,000,000 |
| Brian
Sutherby $850,000 |
Tom
Wandell $700,000 |
Toby
Petersen $750,000 |
| Krys
Barch $825,000 |
Jamie
Benn $635,000 |
Brandon Segal $550,000 |
| Forwards Total: $27,510,000 | ||
| Defensemen | ||
| Trevor
Daley $2,500,000 |
Stephane Robidas $3,250,000 |
|
| Karlis
Skrastins $1,650,000 |
Mark
Fistric $1,000,000 |
|
| Jeff
Woywitka $700,000 |
||
| Defensemen Total: $9,100,000 | ||
| Goaltenders | ||
|
Lehtonen $2,700,000 |
Andrew
Raycroft or Brent Krahn $700,000/$500,000 |
|
| Goaltenders Total: $3,400,000 | ||
| 19 total players (12 forwards, 5 defensemen, 2 goaltenders): $40,010,000 | ||
| Free Agents | ||
| Restricted | ||
| James Neal, Nicklas Grossman, Matt Niskanen, Fabian Brunnstrom | ||
| Unrestricted | ||
| Jere Lehtinen | ||
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