Dallas Stars: Kevin Shattenkirk would be a perfect fit

The Dallas Stars could use some more help on the right side of their defense. This makes Kevin Shattenkirk a flawless fit for them.

Last season, the Dallas Stars were defined by their defense. They allowed the second-fewest goals in the NHL. Only the New York Islanders allowed fewer. However, the Stars could still use some help on their blue line. Recently, the New York Rangers bought out defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk. He’d make perfect sense in Dallas.

Stars fans should be familiar with Shattenkirk, who was a long-time adversary of Dallas during his time with the St. Louis Blues. In 30 games against the Stars, the offensively gifted defenseman has 25 points (four goals and 21 assists).

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Shattenkirk is admittedly a shell of his former self. His time with the Rangers didn’t go as planned. He tore his meniscus in training camp, tried to play through it, and had to have surgery. However, Shattenkirk can still be a useful player, especially to a team like the Stars.

Currently, Dallas defensive pairings are projected to look. These projections are courtesy of Daily Faceoff.

Esa Lindell – John Klingberg
Miro Heiskanen – Roman Polak
Jamie Oleksiak – Andrej Sekera

As you can see, the right side doesn’t inspire much confidence. Klingberg is one of the NHL’s most gifted defensemen. However, Polak is much better suited as a third-pairing option and Sekera’s a bit of a wild card. Shattenkirk would add an element of offense to the blueline that they could use.

His production might have dried out, but he can still drive play. Shattenkirk’s underlying stats were among the best on the Rangers. Though they were a rebuilding team with a lot of ineffective defensemen, this proves he can still be a useful player.

Shattenkirk could act as a second pairing defenseman. It wouldn’t be ideal, but it would almost indefinitely end with better results than pairing a potential future Norris Trophy contender with Polak. Sekera could be another option, with Shattenkirk feasting on lesser competition in a third-pairing role.

Two years ago, his calling card was his power-play production. Though Shattenkirk’s power-play production has fallen mightily over the past two seasons, there’s some context to it. First of all, the injury definitely didn’t help. Secondly, Shattenkirk lost his first power-play unit spot to Anthony DeAngelo and Neal Pionk. The Rangers second power-play unit was much weaker than their first.

Shattenkirk would be a very nice upgrade to the Stars power-play. Keep in mind Dallas already had a very good power-play last season – they ranked 10th in PP goals per hour. They just added one of the best power-play weapons in the NHL in Joe Pavelski too. Corey Perry has a history of producing there as well.

However, their second power-play unit was less effective. This stemmed from a three forward, two defensemen approach, which tends to suppress offense. But let’s be fair – the Stars didn’t exactly have many options at forward.

Esa Lindell was, as expected, not productive on the power-play. Miro Heiskanen is great at many things, but he was even less productive on the power-play than Lindell. Shattenkirk could give the second unit the spark it needs, along with Jamie Benn, who has likely lost his top power-play unit spot to Pavelski.

The big question with Shattenkirk, though, is his cost. Luckily, Dallas has no issue there. Though they have under $1 million of cap space according to CapFriendly, sending down Taylor Fedun would give them $737,500 of additional space.

Furthermore, the Stars will be sending Martin Hanzal to the long-term injured reserve list. This will give them an additional $4.75 million of space. The Stars should have no issues with Shattenkirk’s asking price, no matter what it is.

However, Shattenkirk might not be interested in money. After all, the Rangers are giving him quite a bit of money over the next four seasons. What Shattenkirk will likely care most about is playing time. He’ll also likely want to go to a Stanley Cup contender. The Stars can provide him with playing time and are a Stanley Cup contender.