How Does the Dallas Stars Sale Affect Texas?

New beginnings in Dallas often trickle down to Cedar Park, but what about the sale? (Credit: Dallas Stars)
With the big news of the Dallas Stars bankruptcy filing and pending sale to Tom Gaglardi or the highest bidder, the big question in Cedar Park is does this affect the Texas Stars. The short answer is "no". The slightly longer answer is "yes, but only indirectly".

Included as assets in the bankruptcy agreement are the following, from Defending Big D: Dallas Stars, L.P. (a limited partnership out of Delaware), Dallas Arena LLC, Dallas Stars U.S. Holdings Comp. and StarCenters LLC. You'll notice that the ownership group for the Texas Stars is not included in this list.

According to the Texas Stars, that is because Hicks Cedar Park LLC is a separate corporation from the Dallas Stars, owned by Tom Hicks' sons. Texas is in a 10-year affiliation agreement with the Dallas Stars and a 25-year agreement with the Cedar Park Center. In short, Texas is not going anywhere. They are going to be the affiliate for the Dallas Stars for the foreseeable future.

However, in the long answer, of course whatever happens with the Dallas Stars does affect the Texas Stars. If the Dallas Stars have more fluidity to their payroll, then that affects who ends up in Cedar Park. Remember that for two-way deals, Dallas pays the salary of players sent down to the AHL. Quality veteran players on two-way contracts were a large part of why the Texas Stars made it to the Calder Cup in 2009-10. Garrett Stafford, Dan Jancevski, Andrew Hutchinson and Brad Lukowich were all in this bucket.

Last year, Texas did not have as many of these quality veterans. Think about other teams' quality veterans. With a better ownership situation would Dallas be more likely to sign a guy like Darren Haydar or Jason Krog to help the team along in Cedar Park? Jason Krog gets paid the same at the AHL and NHL level ($550K) and hasn't played an NHL game in 3 seasons. However, he's been good for 150 points in the last two years for the Chicago Wolves. That certainly wouldn't hurt the team in Cedar Park.

In other news, the ice should be going in at the Cedar Park Center next week. Only Travis Morin more days left until regular season hockey resumes in Austin and Jamie Benn (or Stephen Schultz) days until pre-season hockey.

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