Throughout the summer we’ll be looking at every NHL team and potential trade options they could offer the Buffalo Sabres in the offseason to improve their club. Today, we kick it off with a team that many Sabres fans are not fond of in the Dallas Stars.

The Stars have found themselves routinely in the playoffs the last few years, but never seem to meet their expectations. They have a few good forwards leading the way in Tyler Seguin, Jamie Benn, and Roope Hintz. They have one of the best goaltenders in the league in Ben Bishop and a young workhorse on the blue line with Miro Heiskanen.

We’ll see how far they can go in the return to play format this year, but looking ahead to the offseason they have a few decisions to make on players. On paper they also have some needs to fill that would make the Sabres a good trading partner for them.

Stars Offseason Outlook

2020-21 Cap Space (Projected via Cap Friendly): $19.5 million

Key Restricted Free Agents: Roope Hintz, Denis Gurianov, and Radek Faksa (arbitration-eligible)

Key Unrestricted Free Agents: Mattias Janmark, Corey Perry, Roman Polak, Andrej Sekera, and Anton Khudobin

Projected Needs: Right-shot defenseman and backup goaltender

Trade Targets

1. Radek Faksa – Center | Age 26 | RFA

Faksa is another one of those “bridge centers” I’ve mentioned a few times that could make sense for the Sabres. He’s not that homerun second-line center, but he can be an asset to the team playing a certain role that will allow Dylan Cozens to ease into the NHL.

Another reason I like Faksa for the Sabres is that he can step into a role in which he’ll play heavy defensive minutes that is likely going to be vacated by the departure of Johan Larsson through free agency. According to Natural Stat Trick, Faksa has the ninth heaviest deployment of defensive zone starts over the last three years among forwards to play at least 500 minutes with 69.34% of his shifts starting in the defensive zone.

For reference, Larsson had 71.81% of his shifts start in the defensive zone over the last three years. There’s a little bit of a give and take if you replace Faksa for Larsson. Faksa is not going to give you the same defensive performance that you’ve seen from Larsson over the last few years. To be honest, not many players can. However, you should get a boost in offensive production.

As you can see in Micah McCurdy’s chart above, the Czech-native is a forward that does his work around the net. He strong along the walls and could even be a good center to place with Jeff Skinner in that “grinder” role. The type of center we’ve seen Skinner succeed with throughout his career in Carolina and little in Buffalo with Larsson.

Faksa could also be a system fit for the Sabres if Ralph Krueger has the desire to run a dump and chase system similar to what we saw last season. As a team they had struggles with recovering pucks and the 2012 first-round pick could help remedy that. Looking at Corey Sznajder’s tracking data, he was above average among forwards in the NHL this season in puck recoveries on the forecheck.

Where the Sabres come into play on acquiring Faksa is if the Stars have an interest in one of their two right-shot defenders, Rasmus Ristolainen and Brandon Montour. With the expected departure of Roman Polak in free agency, they’ll be down to Stephen Johns and Taylor Fedun behind John Klingberg on the right side of their blue line. Fedun is an underrated 6/7 defender, but they may not want to rely on him in a role beyond that. Especially when you take Johns’ injury history into account, the Stars will likely want to upgrade at that spot.

The question is if they’d have interest in either of the Sabres two aforementioned defenders.

Faksa is an arbitration-eligible restricted free agent, so if they acquire him he’ll need a new contract. Evolving Hockey predicts a three-year deal with a cap hit of $3.1 million. With the current state of the Sabres that cap hit could drive up around $3.75 million or higher. It may also make sense to do a shorter-term deal (two years) to appeal to Faksa and get him to unrestricted free agency sooner.

2. Julius Honka – RD | Age 24 | RFA

Honka was a player I was interested in last season as he was going through a contract dispute with the Stars. He played this past season in Liiga for JYP after the Stars did not fulfill his request for a trade. That bridge may be burned between the two sides and he could be on the move this offseason.

If the Sabres do move both Montour and Ristolainen this offseason, Honka would make sense as a target to keep the depth on the right side of the blue line. He’s not going to score a ton of points but can be a solid cost-controlled bottom pair defenseman. Essentially replacing the loss of Lawrence Pilut but on the right side of the blue line.

He had a decent season in Liiga. The 24-year-old was a positive possession player according to Liiga’s site and recorded 15 points in 46 games. His impacts in the NHL were strong before he headed back overseas. If the cost isn’t high, he makes sense as a low-key addition.

3. Joel L’Esperance – Forward | Age 24 | RFA

The Stars signed L’Esperance as a college free agent a few years ago out of Michigan Tech. This would be nothing more than a depth acquisition that would be more beneficial for the Rochester Amerks in the AHL. He’s only played 20 NHL games in two years but has been one of the better AHL players with the Texas Stars.

He’s a restricted free agent this offseason and perhaps he can be a piece that is added to a deal that includes either of the two players mentioned above.

One team in the books. Only 29 more to go.

Data via: Cap Friendly, Natural Stat Trick, Hockeyviz.com, Corey Sznajder, and Evolving Hockey

Photo credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports