Joe Nieuwendyk took over as the general manager of the Dallas Stars in 2009. He played with the Stars from 1995 until 2002 when he was traded to the New Jersey Devils.
When Nieuwendyk took over there were some players on the roster that he had played with during his days in Dallas, including the face of the franchise, Mike Modano.
From the beginning, Nieuwendyk’s hands were tied by Tom Hicks, who only had the interest of making the organization profitable instead of winning. Nieuwendyk had to work with a minimal budget and had to build the team through the draft and trades.
One of the biggest moves made by Nieuwendyk in his first year as GM was trading Ivan Vishnevskiy and a second round pick for Kari Lehtonen. Vishnevskiy played five NHL games in his career, all for the Stars, and Lehtonen just received a five-year contract extension as the franchise goalie.
For turning a first-round bust and a second round draft pick into a franchise player this trade deserves an A+.
The following season, Nieuwendyk had to make a few more mov ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by Mitchell Klemp
Dallas Stars: Grading Joe Nieuwendyk’s Tenure as the Team’s GM
September 28th, 2012 by Mitchell Klemp Leave a reply »
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