Well the day will have officially come to an end by the time this is published. To call it exciting would be a lie – it was pretty slow compared to yesterday’s flabbergasting state of affairs.
The day had three major points (though they were probably more minor in the scheme of things) –
- Gustavsson still delays even though Burke meets him in Sweden to talk him into Toronto
- Zubov is apparently getting quite a few offers from other teams, NYR and St. Louis two of the top contenders.\
- Skrastins signed for 2 years.
While Dallas finally made a move on the Free Agent market, I wouldn’t necessarily classify it as anything that resembles exciting. But it did ease my soul a bit and made for a nice “brain apocalypse” on the Stars defensive line. I had time to read around about the new guy. If you didn’t read earlier or haven’t explored him since the signing – here are a few key facts about Skrastins:
- Finished with a +9 last season with the Panthers playing 80 games
- Won an Iron Man award for his lack of injuries and holds the record for most consecutive games played by a defensemen.
- Averages 20 minutes ice time per game. For a lot of the first half of the season he played the most time on the PK of anyone else on the team.
- Blocks a ton of shots.
That said he’s a 34 year old Defensive Defensemen who was drafted by Nashville then went to Colorado for a bit before heading to Atlanta. In between those he played in Latvia – his native country (not in Mexico). If nothing else it will be a nice change for us to snag someone who isn’t going to go out for half a season every season after the season we had last year and the problems we’ve had with our veterans lately.
It begs the question – what role is taking up and where does that leave the defense core as a whole? (more…)
The Dallas Stars Assertion 