What to Expect for Texas in First Day of Free Agency

Chris Mueller (Credit: Mark Newman)

The free agent frenzy starts shortly for the National Hockey League. After compliance buyouts and unqualified RFAs yesterday, there are a huge number of players available on the market for teams to grab starting today at 11 AM Central. Dallas is in on a few of the big players and maybe a few others.

However, the Texas Stars shouldn't expect anything that will affect their lineup until later in the week. The biggest NHL free agent add that the Texas Stars saw last year was Chris Mueller. The versatile center set a new team record for point per game with 57 points in 60 regular season games this season. The NHL two-way deal, which saw Mueller become the highest paid AHL contract in Texas Stars history, was not signed until July 8th.

If Texas thinks that they can keep a player like Chris Mueller, he is definitely a priority at the AHL level. However, his contract won't be looked at until after Dallas settles their concerns at 2C, if they can get in on any of the possible trades for Spezza or Thornton or somehow sign Paul Stastny.

Long story short: Barring a trade, don't expect huge changes to the Texas Stars lineup with the names flying off the board today.