Talk of Ribeiro trades
In talking to people today, the Stars are indeed trying to move Mike Ribeiro.
They believe that if the Stars want to improve the team, they need to open up space in the budget (Ribeiro makes $5 million a year for the next three years) to acquire a defenseman, and they believe the Stars have replacements at center with Jamie Benn and Tom Wandell.
Who could Stars poach off the Blackhawks' roster? The Chicago Blackhawks have 14 players under contract for next season at an estimated $57.5 million. (See the capgeek breakdown here). The cap is supposed to be somewhere around $58.8 million. You can see they could have trouble getting under the salary cap and having 22 to 23 players on their roster.
There are some solutions being kicked around, which include sending goalie
Cristobal Huet to the minors (where his $5.6 million salary has to be paid but will not count against the cap) and trading defenseman
Brian Campbell along with either a top prospect or solid draft pick so that another team would pick up the six years and $7.1 million a season that is left on
Campbell's contract.
Turco and Stars need to part waysJean-Jacques Taylor The worst part of professional sports occurs when it's time for an organization to end its relationship with a player who's become one of the faces of the franchise.
It's time for Marty Turco to go.
He knows it, as do the Stars. We all do.
THRASHERS TRADE GOALIE KARI LEHTONEN TO STARS
The Atlanta Thrashers have traded goalie Kari Lehtonen to the Dallas Stars for defenceman Ivan Vishnevskiy and a fourth-round draft pick in the 2010 draft.
Lehtonen, 26, was recalled by Atlanta on Tuesday after completing a conditioning assignment with the Chicago Wolves of the AHL. The Finnish backstop has not played this season after undergoing back surgery on Sept. 16.
How should Stars address goalie questions?Stars Director of European scouting (and former North Stars goalie) Kari Takko played for Assat, where Rynnas plays, and has a good relationship with the franchise, so the Stars are hoping that could help if they get to the point where they want to try to recruit Rynnas. But again, Stars scout Johan Garpenlov had a good relationship with Gustavsson, and Fabian Brunnstrom is a close friend, and the Stars still could not win that recruiting battle.
Anyway, it's a name to watch....and it shows just how wide the Stars are spreading their net in hopes of keeping options open in goal.
Turco tempting for team to trade If Minnesota Wild backup Dwayne Roloson fetched a first-round draft pick from the desperate Edmonton Oilers at the trade deadline in 2006, shouldn't Dallas Stars starter Marty Turco be the same attractive bait?
Turco has been the Stars No. 1 guy since Eddie Belfour left the team in 2002, but his contract is up July 1, Dallas isn't winning a Stanley Cup with this edition and Turco turns 35 in August.
The Marty Turco issue Mike Heika/Reporter
We've talked about our ``sourcing'' policy at our paper before, but to reiterate, I need to get something confirmed pretty well before I can report it as fact. So when some out there say that Marty Turco will not be re-signed and could be available at the trade deadline, I need to get that from somebody within the organization who agrees to be a ``source'' and agrees to know that my editors know that person is the ``source.''
