Is there a Stars gaf to explain their moves lately?
The Stars are trying to change their leadership group. That group consisted of Ribeiro, Ott, Morrow, and Robidas. For the past few years the Stars have been in the position to make the playoffs at the trade deadline and have choked down the stretch. Two years ago it was them missing the last game of the season. This past season they lost the last 5 games of the season. In both seasons they led the division for significant amounts of time. The team is also looking to get younger and move guys they don't think will be here as core pieces in 3 years. Whitney is old and some may view that signing as inconsistent but he was brought in to serve as a stop gap until some of our prospect wingers in the AHL are ready for the NHL.
That leadership group was/is also known for taking bad penalties, whining to the refs, diving, etc. This was a bad enough problem last season that Gulutzan said some public things about it (He was
not happy). With Ribeiro, he was bad enough in the faceoff circle and defensively for the team to have to take away Eriksson and Ryder from Benn and stack his lines to keep his line from getting rolled over. Benn was forced into a checking line role for most of the season on the second line with Ott even though he did a great job centering the first line with Eriksson and Ryder previously. Near the half way point of the season the Stars changed their entire strategy and gave Ribeiro offensive zone starts near 70% and gave Benn the harder minutes. Ribeiro would also frequently stay overstay his shifts on the PP taking time away from Benn. There is also quite a bit of smoke to suggest that significant members of Stars management do not like Ribeiro. They have been trying to trade him since last seasons offseason.
Ott is actually a pretty good hockey player. He is a good defensively and a top face off guy. The issue with Ott is he has a very poor reputation with the officials and takes far too many penalties. This cutesy agitator shit was amusing when Ott was entering the league and was a 4th liner but he has blossomed into an effective 3rd line guy. Ott being in the penalty box doesn't help the Stars. They need him out their to take draws and on the PK. Ott's agitating style was getting tiresome and it can be argued that his penalties did more harm than good. I think for the most part management liked Ott. If this team were deeper they probably would have kept him but they decided to sell on him when his value was high. With Riberio gone they needed a 2nd line C far more than what Ott was bringing to the table.
