Shap and Tiffin: Why Seth Jones Probably Isn't Going to Be a Dallas Star Any Time Soon

The truth hurts, but it will also set you free

If you’ve followed Dallas Stars hockey at all over the last decade (and then some), you've read, heard, watched, or met Sean Shapiro.

Sean has literally written the book on the Dallas Stars (two of them, actually), and after years of being the definitive voice covering the team, he’s also become a movie star, presumably because being the go-to reporter for a team wasn’t enough of a challenge for him.

These days, you can find him writing about everything (including but far from exclusively about the Stars) at his own Substack, Shap Shots.

Sean is also a good friend of mine, and I’ve had the great privilege of benefiting from his experience and wisdom. And today, you get to benefit from it too, as we discuss a trade target that keeps coming up in Dallas Stars Land (not a real theme park, yet).

All right, enough fawning. You’re reading this because you want to get your grubby little mitts on another piece for your fantasy Dallas Stars lineup, so let’s look at whether or not the Stars could really be trading for Seth Jones.

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Before Jim Nill went out and traded for Mikael Granlund and Cody Ceci, the Stars’ mountain of cap space was a fantasy hockey player’s dream. Every remotely available player could fit into the chasm of cap space created by putting Tyler Seguin and Nils Lundkvist on long-term injured reserve, and that led to more trade speculation than ever.

Some of that speculation involved fixing the Stars roster’s biggest weakness: their lack of a top-tier, right-shot defensemen.

Ever since Chris Tanev followed the tax man back to Canada, the Stars have been unable to replace him. Ilya Lyubushkin has served admirably down the lineup, but with the Matt Dumba Experiment not working out on the top pairing, fans wondered whether Dallas might go back to the Calgary well at the deadline and trade for a right-shot defender like Rasmus Andersson—at least, until Calgary decided he wasn’t available to begin with, with them staying in the playoff hunt and hoping to extend Andersson.

But due to the lack of high-caliber rental righties in the NHL, one name has persistently come up as an ideal Stars target. We’ve both written about him, and even as recently as last weekend, Dallas and Chicago have been alleged to have discussed such a deal.

A high-profile name like Seth Jones on the blue line would seem to solve Dallas’s problem, certainly. The problem? Jones has term remaining on his contract, and lots of it. Five more years at a $9.5 million annual cap hit, to be precise.

Sure, Jones has local ties to Dallas, but is there any earthly way this deal could actually come together? Sean and Robert decided to work through this one in tandem and pick apart every aspect of the rumor that just won’t die.