Pull It Quickly So It Doesn’t Hurt As Badly

Today is the day that the Dallas Stars said good bye to Mike Modano.  We had plenty of indications that this day could be coming sooner than a lot of us would like.  And it sucks and it hurts.  But like a band-aid, ripping it off quickly is the best way to do it.  Since Mike hadn’t made a decision in the past two months on if he was retiring or not, Stars GM Joe Nieuwendyk ripped off the band-aid.  Ouch!

I am not going to wax poetic about Modano’s achievements.  Quite honestly, just watch him in videos of his games on YouTube.  His talent speaks more eloquently than words could ever capture.  Simply put, he is one of the greatest players to ever play the game – regardless of nationality.

But the past few years, he’s been a shadow of his former self – like so many players who continue to play in their late 30’s/early 40’s.  Mark Recchi just signed a new deal in Boston at the age of 42.  But the Stars are not the Boston Bruins.  The Stars have many serious problems other than a soft, young defense.  The Stars have a glut at the center position.  It was that same problem that sent Joe Nieuwendyk and Jamie Langenbrunner to the New Jersey Devils for Jason Arnott and, uh, yeah, Randy MacKay.  Remember him?   The Stars also haven’t made the playoffs two straight years in a row.  Finally, the Stars have a payroll that is about $10M under the cap, competing in a conference that has the Stanley Cup Champions, the Chicago Blackhawks, who are dumping players to get UNDER the cap.

So do you have the money and minutes to keep Mike Modano?  Would he be happy playing on the fourth line?  Are you hurting the development of Jamie Benn and Tom Wandel by limiting their minutes to put Modano on the PP?  These are the questions that Joe Nieuwendyk had to answer.

The truth is he wasn’t happy this year playing on the fourth line.  By moving on to another team, Mike might be able to get more minutes.   It will be hard to see him in another jersey, but maybe he goes on like Ray Bourque and wins another Cup – just please don’t let it be with the Redwings.  From what we saw from Benn and Wandel, you can’t justify giving Modano more minutes than they get.  Wandel is probably our strongest defensive forward next to Jere Lehtinen.  Perhaps if the Stars had been able to move Ribeiro during the draft, we don’t have this conversation.

But today, Joe Nieuwendyk ripped off the band-aid.  He’s been called just about everything under the sun.  He even admitted he knew it would hurt the fans but he was hired to make the difficult choices, the choices that will make the Dallas Stars a competitive team again.  I wonder if the Co-GM’s Brett Hull and Les Jackson would’ve been able to make this choice.  I doubt Hully would have.  Would Jackson have stood up to Hull on this?  That’s a question which we will never know the answer.

Mike Modano has played his last game as a Dallas Star.  He now has the big question to answer on if he has played his last hockey game.  I imagine he’ll see what offers come his way on July 1.  Have no doubt, the offers will come but will they be attractive to Mike?

So I wish you well Mike Modano where ever life may take you.  Just please, seriously, don’t let it take you to the Red Wings.