Dallas Stars Trade Deadline Week Begins: Lian Bichsel's Imminent Return, Wyatt Johnston's Pending Extension, and Mikko Rantanen Rantin' (Again)

And a couple of minor targets I could see Dallas pursuing, too

The Stars changed this morning’s scheduled practice to an optional affair today, and that meant all of four players on the ice: Lian Bichsel, Colin Blackwell, Jason Robertson, and Casey DeSmith.

Bichsel is the key player there, given he’s still in concussion protocol. He was the first one on the ice today, working with Stars’ skating coach Luke Chilcott before being joined by other players.

Pete DeBoer said today that he expects Bichsel to be an option for tomorrow’s game against New Jersey.

“We gotta make another step here today with some contact and things,” DeBoer said, “but if everything goes well, I would say he’s an option for tomorrow, yeah.”

In the NHL’s concussion protocol, it lists the final step before a player can be cleared to play by the team’s head physician as “controlled body contact,” which is essentially full practice participation. After that takes place (as it did on Monday), I believe the team waits until the following day to see if the contact triggered any concussion symptoms. If no symptoms occur, then it’s likely Bichsel will be cleared to play tomorrow.

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There have been a couple reports today of Wyatt Johnston’s pending extension. First, Cam Robinson of Elite Prospects:

And second, Jeff Marek of, well, Jeff Marek:

To no surprise, I’m told the Dallas Stars and Wyatt Johnston are working away at what his next deal will look like. Ideally, Stars GM Jim Nill would prefer to have Johnston’s number nailed down before making Trade Deadline moves, but this isn’t a perfect world. It sounds like the Stars forward is in the $8-8.5 million AAV range on an eight-year deal.

If you want to throw some darts, here you go:

1. Roope Hintz and Miro Heiskanen both signed long-term extensions at $8.45 million per year. You can see a world where the Stars offer $8.1 million as Robinson alludes to, then Johnston’s camp asks for $9 million, after which they eventually settle at something like that same $8.45 million.

2. Johnston, however, is negotiating in a time where we know the salary cap is going up quite a bit in the next couple of years. He’s also coming off his third hat trick before turning 22 years old. Johnston, by the way, is represented by Andy Scott, who also represents Thomas Harley, Leon Draisaitl, Mikko Rantanen, and a host of other quality players. He’s not taking a bargain-bin contract. Does he ask for a percentage of the cap afte

3. There are a very small number of people who know the numbers in these negotiations. It’s always interesting to reflect on who benefits most from the numbers getting out there before the deal gets done. What is either side hoping to accomplish by these numbers getting to the media, if indeed it was done intentionally (as it often is)?

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Meanwhile, Elliotte Friedman said on his podcast this morning that he wonders if Dallas would look at trading for Mikko Rantanen, should Carolina flip him after failing to get Rantanen to commit to an extension at around $13 million per year.

As with Friedman reporting similar things about Jones over the past couple of weeks, I have to be very, very skeptical of just how viable a candidate Dallas is in this case.

Sure, you can see the Finnish connection, and Rantanen is a large player while Dallas has a relatively small forward group. And if the Stars put Miro Heiskanen on LTIR as is looking more likely, they would have the cap space to make it work for this year.

But I think this is extremely unlikely, unless Jim Nill has a bombshell to drop this week. Because what would Dallas be trading to Carolina for Rantanen? Remember, the Hurricanes gave Colorado a 2nd-round pick, a 4th-round pick, a top-line player in Martin Nečas who has 68 points in 61 games and is locked up for one more year, and a bottom-six NHL forward in Jack Drury, who is only 25 years old.

That was a massive, massive haul. If Carolina were to turn around and trade Rantanen as they are rumored to be looking at, they absolutely have to get a significant return. To do otherwise would be effectively punting on this year’s playoff run. You can’t do that to a team that has battled to stay near the top of their division all year right before the deadline.

This is not, as I’ve heard some fans say on Twitter, a situation where Carolina is at risk of “losing Rantanen for nothing.” This is a team about to go into the playoffs, and a team that got to the second round last year, and the Conference Finals the year before that. Adding a Cup-winning top-line player like Rantanen for a playoff run is not “nothing,” even if you only end up recouping a pick for his rights later in June. It’s silly to think they’d take pennies on the dollar to “unload him.” That’s what eliminated teams with nothing to lose do, not teams consistently winning playoff rounds like Carolina.

So, that means Dallas would have to give Carolina someone who would at least be comparable to Nečas, and…what players do the Stars have in that category that you’d be willing to send out? Matt Duchene and Roope Hintz are in that tier, but they both have full trade protection, so it’s a non-starter. It’s silly to even bring them up, really.

In fact, there’s really only one player that even the most far-fetched trade could possibly involve, and that’s Jason Robertson. He doesn’t have trade protection, and after his bridge deal is up in the summer of 2026 (when he’ll still be an RFA for another year), Robertson will surely deserve a big ol’ raise. Will Dallas be willing to give that raise to him? I don’t know.

Anyway, that’s all kind of silly, because Rantanen appears to be looking for something close to $14 million a year this summer, given what he’s turned down from Carolina. That would blow up the Stars’ cap situation even if they did something crazy like swap Robertson for him, so the Stars seem just as likely not to re-sign him as Carolina.

All told, I can’t see a situation where a Rantanen trade to Dallas would solve problems for both teams. Eric Tulsky swung big to get Rantanen, and I’m sure he’s willing to swing just as big in order to wind up with a comparable piece, as Rantanen hasn’t seemed to fit. In the event he feels obligated to move Rantanen, I could see Vegas or Florida being interested. But Dallas just doesn’t make a lick of sense to me unless the Stars are contemplating major surgery, and that’s not the sense I’ve gotten from this front office over the last couple months.

Tell me what you think! I’ll unlock the comments on this piece for all subscribers in order to solicit the “hey dummy, just trade wiatt johnson” contributions. I value those a lot, definitely.

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Friedman also reported on the same podcast that he believes Dallas was the other main team in the running for Seth Jones, but that Dallas just couldn’t make it work. And while I’m sure the Stars weren’t ignoring Kyle Davidson’s calls completely, I still have to really squint to see how the Stars were all that close.

You do wonder if there was a number at which the Stars would have been able to make it work, sure. Would they have been willing to move a young player and another first-rounder for Jones at $5.5 or $6 million for five more years, rather than the $7 million Florida will be taking on? Honestly, I doubt it. It could well be that there was a number before the maximum 50% retention where serious talks would have taken place between Dallas and Chicago, but whether talks ever got close to that number is something about which I’m skeptical.

Also, it wouldn’t shock me one bit if the rumblings about Dallas being a strong pursuer of Jones were coming largely from Chicago all along in hopes of getting Florida to bid against themselves. Just a theory, but you can see how it would benefit Chicago to make it sound like multiple teams were in the running.

Sure, Dallas would love to have Seth Jones, all things being equal. But they never are. And in the end, Florida gave up two decent pieces the Stars didn’t have.

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So, what will the Stars do this week? Something, almost certainly, but probably not a huge something. Here are two bones I can throw you that are pure speculation, not reporting:

On defense, I still think that Henri Jokiharju is a target well within reach that could give Dallas some insurance for the stretch run and the playoffs. You need Joel Hanleys in your system, and without Joel Hanley or Nils Lundkvist, the Stars would be down to Alex Petrovic or Kyle Capobianco. It seems clear DeBoer doesn’t see them as answers. I think the Stars can go deep in the playoffs if they roll with Heiskanen, Harley, Lindell, Bichsel, Ceci, and Lyubushkin. It’s not as good a top-4 as last year’s blue line had with Chris Tanev, but the third pair is stronger (in the sense the coach has a third pairing he would actually be willing to play), and Heiskanen should be, if nothing else, very well-rested.

At forward, I could also see a depth player like Brandon Tanev making sense, for similar reasons as Jokiharju. The Stars’ left wing spots are pretty full with Robertson, Marchment, and Benn, but Tanev can be a sort of new-wave Antoine Roussel, even though he’s not quite what he was two years ago. He’d have to be pretty inexpensive to acquire, but he’s had a couple of down years, so I could see the Stars getting him without breaking the bank. Getting a Tanev at the deadline is good luck, after all.