The Dallas Stars traded defenseman Sergei Gonchar to the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday for forward Travis Moen, a transaction involving two veteran players whose roles had diminished with their previous teams. Gonchar, who turns 41 years old in April, has appeared in three games for the Stars this season and averaged slightly more than 13 minutes of ice time per game. He is in the final year of a contract with an average annual value of $5 million. The trade frees up a significant amount of cap space in 2014-15 for the Stars, who could look to ease the burden being placed on the top-four defensemen by acquiring outside help. Dallas will add John Klingberg to the roster to replace Gonchar. Jamie Oleksiak is already a regular, and Nill mentioned Jyrki Jokipakka, Julius Honka and Cameron Gaunce as other defense prospects who could help the Stars.
Moen has this season and 2015-16 left on his contract, which carries an average annual value of $1.85 million, so the Stars have added more than $3 million in cap space for this season. The Stars signed Gonchar to a two-year, $10 million contract before last season. He had just completed a successful three-year pact with the Ottawa Senators during which he averaged more than 22 minutes of ice time per game each season while compiling 15 goals and 91 points in 186 games. Gonchar had played at least 21:46 per game in every season since 1998-99 and finished in the top 10 of the Norris Trophy voting nine times. Last season Gonchar had two goals, his lowest total since the lockout-shortened 1994-95 campaign, and 22 points, his fewest in a season in which he played more than 25 games since 1997-98. More telling, he also averaged 17:37 of ice time, which was sixth among Stars defensemen. After spending nearly two decades as a top-pair defenseman, Gonchar was forced to adjust to being a role player last season. This season Gonchar has been a healthy scratch at times and used minimally as younger players like Oleksiak and Kevin Connauton passed him on the depth chart. The Stars are leaning heavily on their top four defensemen. Each has averaged at least 21:47 of ice time while Trevor Daley and Alex Goligoski are each among the top 15 in the NHL in time on ice per game. Gonchar has 219 goals and 798 points in 1,256 NHL games. He won the Stanley Cup with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2009, and reached the Cup Final with Pittsburgh in 2008 and the Washington Capitals in 1998. He is second to Alex Kovalev in games played by a Russian player in NHL history, and leads all Russian defensemen in goals and points. Moen, 32, was in his sixth season with the Canadiens. A bottom-six forward during his entire tenure, Moen's average time on ice this season is, at 10:30 per game, the lowest of his career. A Stanley Cup champion with the Anaheim Sucks in 2007, Moen's finest moment with the Canadiens actually came at the expense of Gonchar. Montreal led 3-0 in Game 7 of the 2010 Eastern Conference Semifinals when Moen chipped the puck off the boards to himself after skating past Gonchar and scored a goal that sealed an improbable rout in the final game at Mellon Arena and what proved to be the final game of Gonchar's time with the Penguins. Moen has 56 goals and 125 points in 690 NHL games. He had seven goals and 12 points in 21 playoff games during Anaheim's postseason march in 2007. The Canadiens already had a crowded and talented defense corps before Gonchar arrived, but by making this swap general manager Marc Bergevin has cleared Moen's contract off his ledger for next season, when a collection of young players that includes Alex Galchenyuk, Brendan Gallagher, Nathan Beaulieu and Jarred Tinordi are all restricted free agents.
Jim Nill [Stars GM]: "We're open to [another move], But my first thought process here, and [coach] Lindy [Ruff], sitting down with him and our management and coaching staff, is that we have to find out internally what we have first. That's what this trade allows us to do now. … We have some young defensemen coming up and they've earned the right for the opportunity. These are guys that have been playing the last two or three years, they won the Calder Cup. I needed to start opening up some doors and some opportunities for them. I've been watching him [Moen] the last few games for Montreal and he does a good job killing penalties. That's something we need to improve on in our game. But it's really the overall game of what he brings on and off the ice. He plays the game the right way, he'll bring a little bit of bite to our lineup and I just think he'll be a good fit for us."
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