Stars acquire center, defenseman from Sharks

Earlier Saturday, the Stars made a series of roster moves geared toward setting up and optimizing their LTIR pool.  They wasted little time using it as they acquired center Mikael Granlund and defenseman Cody Ceci from San Jose in exchange for Dallas’ 2025 first-round pick and Winnipeg’s 2025 fourth-round selection.  If Dallas reaches the Stanley Cup Final, that pick can elevate to a third-rounder.  Both teams have announced the swap.  Stars GM Jim Nill released the following statement:

We are excited to welcome both Mikael and Cody to Dallas. We see both players as addressing immediate needs for our team — Mikael is a proven scorer who will bolster our forward group at both even strength and on the power play, and Cody will add a stabilizing and physical presence to our blueline. Both players will bring valuable postseason experience to our group, and we are looking forward to seeing their contributions to the Stars as the season continues.

The Stars have been missing a key middleman for the last two months. Tyler Seguin underwent hip surgery, which is expected to keep him out for the remainder of the regular season. They’ve been trying to fill that spot internally, with Jamie Benn spending some time down the middle. Sam Steel has also been elevated to the third line at times, but there has been a general expectation that Dallas would need to look outside the organization to fill that spot at some point.

Granlund certainly helps fill the void. In his first year with San Jose, the 32-year-old had a resurgence last season, recording 12 goals and 48 assists in just 69 games. Granlund has shown that the improvement wasn’t a fluke, as he has 15 goals and 30 assists through 52 games this season. This puts him on pace for 69 points, which would tie his career-high set in 2016-17.

That said, Granlund shouldn’t be counted on to produce at a similar rate with the Stars.  Granlund has been an all-situations No. 1 center with San Jose, logging nearly 21 minutes a night for the second straight year.  That won’t be the case with Dallas, which still has Roope Hintz, Wyatt Johnston, Matt Duchene and Benn in the mix in the top six.  More likely is that Granlund would be counted on to anchor the third line with some secondary minutes on both the power play and penalty kill.

Granlund is in the final season of a two-year, $10M contract.  It’s worth noting that the Sharks have already used all three available salary retention slots (on Brent Burns, Erik Karlsson, and Tomas Hertl), so they cannot retain any money to help facilitate a deal.  Accordingly, either Dallas absorbs the full $5M into their LTIR pool (one that’s around $12M per PuckPedia at the moment) or they will need to get a third team involved to pay down some of the contract.

As for Ceci, he’s in his first season with San Jose after being acquired over the summer from Edmonton in what amounted to a cap-clearing move from the Oilers.  The 31-year-old is playing a bigger role than he has been accustomed to in recent years but is holding his own with 15 points, 100 blocked shots, and 52 hits in 54 games while logging over 21 minutes a night.

Ceci has over 800 games of NHL experience over his 12-year career, largely spent ranging from being a second to a fourth defender.  He may get the opportunity to remain in that role with his new club for the time being with Miro Heiskanen out on a longer-term basis while Nils Lundkvist’s season has come to an end after undergoing shoulder surgery.  Additionally, offseason signing Mathew Dumba hasn’t panned out as planned, so Ceci should be able to play an impactful role in Dallas.

Ceci is also in the final season of his contract, which carries a $3.25M cap charge. If Dallas doesn’t get any third-party retention in this move, it will use about two-thirds of its LTIR pool in one move (barring any roster players going the other way), although it will also fill a pair of important needs in one swap.

Dallas didn’t necessarily have to trigger using LTIR Saturday, as they still had enough regular cap space to operate outside of it. However, their commitment to using it now suggested they had a move in the works. This certainly qualifies as they give themselves a big boost in the highly competitive Central Division.

While the Sharks are losing arguably their two most prominent pending UFAs, the first-round selection adds a legitimate future asset. Adding one of those despite not being able to hold back money is a solid piece of business for GM Mike Grier. He’ll now likely turn his focus toward finding new homes for his other expiring deals, including forwards Luke Kunin and Nico Sturm and defenseman Jan Rutta.

ESPN’s Kevin Weekes first reported the two sides were discussing a Granlund trade.  Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman was first with Ceci’s inclusion.  TSN’s Darren Dreger first had the return for San Jose while Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic first reported the conditions on the Winnipeg selection.