NHL Rumors: Dallas Stars appear to be favorites to sign Joe Pavelski

According to the latest NHL rumors, it appears the Dallas Stars have emerged as the favorites to sign former San Jose Sharks captain Joe Pavelski.

Ever since the San Jose Sharks signed Erik Karlsson to a long-term extension, Joe Pavelski has been penciled in as leaving the only team he’s ever known. He’s played his entire career with the Sharks, but it appears he will be wearing a different sweater shortly. According to the latest NHL rumors, the Dallas Stars have emerged as the favorites to sign him.

This report comes from Elliotte Friedman. Also, Sean Shapiro of The Athletic confirmed that the Stars appear confident they will add Pavelski on Monday, July 1, once free agency officially opens. They recently bought out Valeri Nichushkin, which could mean they’re clearing space for something.

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According to David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period, the Stars will sign Pavelski to a three-year deal worth about $7 million annually.

Pavelski would likely be on the second line in Dallas. However, he could play up on the first line if needed. Pavelski’s main role will be adding some scoring to a team who needs some. Though they have Tyler Seguin, Alexander Radulov, and Jamie Benn, who combined for 89 goals last season, their next best goal scorer (Radek Faksa) had just 15.

This means the Stars likely won’t be re-signing Mats Zuccarello, who was a great trade deadline acquisition for them. He made their second line a lot better and that will be Pavelski’s role to fill. Dallas already had a pretty good power-play last season. Adding Pavelski to it should make it even better.

Dallas hasn’t signed him yet, though. The Tampa Bay Lightning are reportedly still pursuing him and seeing if they can clear up the cap space necessary to sign him. However, given their difficult salary cap situation, the odds are clearly against them.

It will be interesting to see what kind of deal Pavelski gets. He’ll be 35 years old very soon, so that means he probably won’t be getting a long-term deal. Anything over three years would be downright silly.

Also, what will his cap hit be? Pavelski is still a very good player and scored 38 goals last season. So it’s clear he still commands a large cap hit. It should be at least $6 million. This could increase the market for guys like Zuccarello. And if the Lightning want to improve their forward core, that could be very intriguing. Pavelski would have been a perfect fit for them. $7 million is about right for the former Sharks captain.

There’s still a lot of time before free agency opens on Monday at noon. But it appears the Stars are in a good position if they want to sign Pavelski.