Stars make more roster moves

Tuesday, October 07, 2008-11:58:pm
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The Dallas Stars made some more roster moves as Wednesday's deadline to be in compliance with the NHL salary cap approached, but it doesn't appear the team is done.

The moves included placing Sergei Zubov on injured reserve, sending James Neal and Mark Fistric to the Central Hockey League, sending Ivan Vishnevskiy to the AHL, putting Doug Janik and Francis Wathier on waivers and releasing Konstantin Pushkarev.

  • They put Zubov on injured reserve, saying he would be out indefinitely while recovering from the hip surgery he underwent just before training camp started. That opens the door for possible using the long-term injury exception, which would provide the Stars a little cap relief but not a lot since they are so tight against it to start with.
     
  • The Stars, who are without an AHL affiliate this season, assigned both Neal and Fistric to the Oklahoma City Blazers  of the Central Hockey League, a mid-level league below both the AHL and ECHL. This move hasn't been explained or officially announced.
     
  • The Stars placed both Janik and Wathier on waivers Tuesday. This is a precursor to sending the player to the minors. Wathier is expected to play with the Iowa Chops of the AHL and he is already in Des Moines. Janik is a completely different story. Word is that although Janik is on waivers the Stars expect him to stay with the team. Right now he is the team's sixth defenseman and if the Stars lose him the seventh defenseman, Fistric, is just a phone call and a short hop away in Oklahoma City.
     
  • As expected, the Stars assigned Vishnevskiy to the Peoria Rivermen of the AHL.
     
  • The Stars released Pushkarev as expected. He is expected to return hope to Russia and play.

These moves leave the Stars roster, which still includes Janik, Wathier and, of course, Zubov, at 24 players. With Zubov on injured reserve the Stars are down to the maximum of 23 active players. If you take out Wathier once he is assigned to Iowa and assume, as the Stars do, that Janik will stay, the roster would be down to 22 players, including forwards Fabian Brunnstrom and Chris Conner for now.

The Stars would have 14 forwards, six defenseman and two goaltenders for a total cap cost of $56.535 million, and that would be $165,000 under the $56.7 million upper limit. Zubov's $5.35 million cap hit, even though he is on IR, still counts.

Of course all these moves could just be shuffling prior to some kind of deal or they simply could be to get the Stars in compliance with the league's salary cap by Wednesday's 2 pm deadline.

Here's a look at the roster now, taking Neal, Fistric, Wathier, Vishnevskiy and Pushkarev out of the mix.

Forwards
No. Player Cap Cost
16 Sean Avery $3,875,000
13 Krys Barch $575,000
96 Fabian Brunnstrom $2,225,000
25 Chris Conner $500,000
44 B.J. Crombeen $550,000
21 Loui Eriksson $1,600,000
26 Jere Lehtinen $4,000,000
39 Joel Lundqvist $725,000
9 Mike Modano $3,450,000
10 Brenden Morrow $4,100,000
29 Steve Ott $1,425,000
17 Toby Petersen $550,000
63 Mike Ribeiro $5,000,000
91 Brad Richards $7,800,000
Defensemen
No. Player Cap Cost
43 Philippe Boucher $2,500,000
6 Trevor Daley $2,300,000
2 Nicklas Grossman $975,000
33 Doug Janik $500,000
5 Matt Niskanen $850,000
3 Stephane Robidas $1,500,000
56 Sergei Zubov (IR) $5,350,000
Goaltenders
No. Player Cap Cost
31 Tobias Stephan $485,000
35 Marty Turco $5,700,000
Team Total   $56,535,000
In Oklahoma City
No. Player Cap Cost
28 Mark Fistric $788,889
18 James Neal $821,667