Whirlwind in Dallas

The Stars were also very busy in the later parts of the afternoon on Friday, as they signed a number of players in their re-tooling efforts.  The Stars had a pretty big collapse at the end of last season, dropping out of the playoffs from being up at the top of their division for quite a while.  Changes had to be made, let's see who they picked up...

First up on the list, Vern Fiddler signed a 3-year deal, which will pay the winger $5.4 million, a $1.8 million cap hit per season. Fiddler is a blue collar winger who likes to muck in the dirty areas of the ice. In 2011, he picked up 6 goals and 16 assists in 71 games with the Coyotes. He definitely has the right work ethic to do well in Dallas, which will be important.

Next up on the list, one of the few free agents from the Stanley Cup winning Bruins team, Michael Ryder, signed on with the Stars in the afternoon, putting pen to paper on a 2-year deal, which will pay him $7 million.  Ryder played well for the Bruins in the regular season, picking up 18 goals and 23 assists in 79 games for the club, shifting up and down throughout the line-up.

Jake Dowell was next on the list of signings for the Stars, getting a 1-year deal out of the club for $800,000. Dowell played in 79 games for the Blackhawks, scoring 6 goals and adding 15 assists. Dowell should be considered more of a bottom six checking forward and likely won't be too big for fantasy points.

Not too long after being bought out by the Oilers on Friday, Sheldon Souray lands on his feet and signs with the Dallas Stars, one year, $1.65 million. Souray spent the entire 2011 season in the minors, almost falling off the face of the Earth.

Forwards	Defense	Goalies
Loui Eriksson	Alex Goligoski	Kari Lehtonen
Mike Ribeiro	Stephane Robidas	Andrew Raycroft
Brendan Morrow	Trevor Daley
Jamie Benn	Niklas Grossman
Michael Ryder	Adam Pardy
Steve Ott	Mark Fistric
Radek Dvorak	Sheldon Souray
Vern Fiddler
Jake Dowell
Adam Burish
Tom Wandell
Toby Petersen
Krys Barch

In theory, the Stars are pretty well done, if they wanted to just take the rest of the Summer off. With 13 forwards, seven defense and a goaltending tandem signed, they could ice a team right now. With the roster above and a re-entry waiver tally still on the books, I have the Stars just over the salary cap floor with $49.1 million projected for the coming year. I'm sure the team table above will be tinkered with a bit, but it's a budget team with ownership issues, so this could be the best we get.