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Developing Young Stars, Here Or Elsewhere

Posted on March 18th, 2009 9:11am by Jeff Miller
Filed under Dallas Stars, Hockey

So the Stars, down in ninth place coming off last night’s 4-2 loss at Vancouver, face the Calgary Flames tonight at the Saddledome. Say hello again to Jarome Iginla, one of the brightest NHL stars since leaving the Stars’ organization in December 1995, just months after being drafted 11th overall, in the trade for Joe Nieuwendyk.

The other morning at the Stars’ practice in Frisco, yours truly was chatting with longtime DMN hockey writer Mike Heika and Mark Stepneski, who runs the excellent Andrew’s Dallas Stars Page, about Dallas youngsters who have gone on to blossom elsewhere. Can you think of many that you’d want go-backs on when also considering who came here in the trades?

Yes, Iginla has become the face of the franchise. Team captain. A two-time 50-goal scorer. A three-time 90-point player. Nearly helped deliver a Stanley Cup in 2004. But how many Flames fans were on board when Calgary traded Nieuwendyk? He was a two-time 50-goal guy for the Flames then. Here, his name is on that Conn Smythe Trophy. Right next to that Stanley Cup.

Speaking of Nieuwendyk, he was part of the trade in March 2002 that sent promising Jamie Langenbrunner to New Jersey for Jason Arnott, Randy McKay and a first-round pick. Langenbrunner had one 20-goal season in Dallas. In Jersey, he was part of another Cup winner in ’03 and is currently enjoying his top scoring season (23-37-60).

Todd Harvey was the team’s first-round pick in 1993, the summer when the club moved here. Scored 11 goals in the shortened 1995 season and looked like a player to build around. Never again scored more than 11, here or after bouncing around beginning with the March 1998 trade sent him to the Rangers for veteran forwards Brian Skrudland and Mike Keane, valuable pieces in the ’99 run.

Some of those youngsters backing up Ed Belfour before Marty Turco was anointed – Roman Turek, Manny Fernandez. Now we’ll follow Mike Smith and Dan Ellis.

First-round picks like Jason Botterill, Richard Jackman and goalie Jason Bacashihua moved on. Bad drafts? Antti Miettinen was a seven-round selection and got some mileage here. Jussi Jokinen a sixth-rounder.

3 Comments to “Developing Young Stars, Here Or Elsewhere”

paljoey @ March 18th, 2009 at 11:38 am

Sir: Re the 2002 Nieuwendyk trade – any idea what’s to show for the first-round pick Stars received from NJ?
Mark @ March 18th, 2009 at 12:05 pm

Dallas traded that 20th overall pick to Columbus for goalie Ron Tugnutt and 32nd overall pick in the draft, which the Stars then used to select forward Janos Vas, who is no longer with the organization.

Tobias Stephan (34th overall) and Trevor Daley (43rd overall) are the two players they got out of the 2002 draft that are still around.
Sriram @ March 18th, 2009 at 3:02 pm

I don’t think you’d want to call for a do-over on the Iginla-for-Nieuwendyk trade. The Stars went on to win the Cup with Nieuwy. No matter what kind of a career the guy you give up has, if you win a championship with the guy you got (and it’s hard to argue he wasn’t instrumental in the ’99 Cup win), you made a good trade.

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