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It’s Dallas Stars Day at PHT

Montreal Canadiens v Dallas Stars

Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin

Getty Images

Throughout the month of August, PHT will be dedicating a day to all 30 NHL clubs. Today’s team? The Dallas Stars.

For more entries in this series, click here.

Dallas GM Jim Nill didn’t waste any time making the Stars his team and so far they’ve been better for it. His major move last summer, bringing Tyler Seguin as part of a blockbuster trade with Boston, was a big win for him.

Seguin, who had struggled to cement his role with the deep Bruins, was paired up with Stars captain Jamie Benn last season and the duo combined to score 71 goals and 163 points. Seguin and Benn are just 22 and 25 years old respectively, so the two should be playing together for years to come. The former Bruins forward also has five seasons left on his six-year, $34 million, which will be a steal if he continues to play at the level he demonstrated last season.

Of course, it also helped matters that goaltender Kari Lehtonen was able to stay relatively healthy last season. Although he dealt with a lower-body injury and concussion, he still managed to play in 65 games. His solid work between the pipes is one of the reasons the Stars squeezed into the postseason with a 40-31-11 record, ending their drought of five straight campaigns without a playoff berth.

Once there, the Stars were gave the heavily favored Ducks a run for their money before finally falling in Game 6 in overtime.

Offseason recap

For the second straight summer, Nill pulled off a major trade for a center. This time he acquired Jason Spezza from the Ottawa Senators in exchange for Alex Chiasson, Ludwig Karlsson, Alexander Guptill, Nicholas Paul, and a second round pick. After developing some on-ice chemistry with Spezza in 2013-14, Ales Hemsky followed him to Dallas by inking a three-year, $12 million contract.

Dallas also decided to take a chance on goaltender Anders Lindback. He showed a lot of promise when he was a member of the Nashville Predators, but he struggled during his two-season tenure with Tampa Bay and after falling hard in the 2014 playoffs, the Lightning weren’t willing to present him with a qualifying offer. Lindback inked a one-year, $925,000 deal with Dallas and is likely to start the season as the team’s backup netminder, although Jussi Rynnas was brought in to challenge him for that role following a strong season in Finland’s top league.

Nill’s work isn’t done yet as Cody Eakin and Brenden Dillon are still restricted free agents.

Follow @RyanDadoun