Fistric, Woywitka, and Auld.

Our inveterate GM has been working away. Joe Nieuwendyk has made a couple of moves in the last few days. I’m relieved to say that I’m fairly okay with the latest moves.

They highly-coveted Jonas Gustavsson picked a team where he’s likely to be the starter, which isn’t the Dallas Stars. So, since Joe pretty much had all his eggs in that basket, he had to scramble to find another goalie. (See what I did there?) I wasn’t too impressed with the free agent goalies that were out there, but I hadn’t considered trying a practically-free trade for one.

The Stars traded their sixth round pick to the Senators for Alex Auld. I am perfectly happy with that. Auld seems to be pretty capable of playing plenty of games, and still be okay with being the backup. He’s had some good years and some bad ones, but for a sixth round pick (that was really this year’s seventh-round pick), he’s fine. Maybe this will be one of his good years.

The Stars also added some more defensive depth in Jeff Woywitka. I don’t know much about him, but I could have sworn he was projected to be pretty good. Maybe it’s just because his name is unusual that makes me think he’s been talked about a lot. He’s not expensive or anything, so it’s not a bad deal.

There’s a lot of speculation about how the defense is going to shake out, now that there are eight defensemen on the roster. You really only need seven: six to play and one for the press box. And Zubov hasn’t even been signed. (I’m worried about Zubov, but that’s for another discussion.) I’m trying not to get worried, guessing what the plans are. I do not want any of the d-kids traded, and I don’t want to lose Trevor Daley, either. It would be a shame to put all the work in on developing those kids, and then give them to someone else to enjoy.

Last season was a bad one, for a myriad of reasons. Niskanen and Fistric struggled at the beginning, but they both pulled it out toward the end. These are learning experiences. Nightmare seasons are learning experiences for young players, whether they’re part of the problem or not. Three of the kids were in their sophomore season, which is historically the toughest. This season will show us if they’ve really learned from last season. I don’t want to see it happen on some other team.

Speaking of Mark Fistric, he’s been signed to a 3-year deal. I am thrilled about this. I am a big fan of Fistric’s. With all the clamoring for puck-moving offensive defensemen, the importance of a defensive defenseman has sometimes been overlooked. Fistric is one, and we need him.

When he came back up from Manitoba last season, he finished out the season very well. It was good to see him back there pushing people down and dragging people out of Marty’s crease.

I’m a little tense about the glut of defensemen, though. I hope they didn’t sign Fistric to a nice deal with the plan to trade him. We need him here. Woywitka and Hutchinson are nice for insurance, but Fistric needs to be out on the ice every night, with Nick Grossman by his side.