Check out the stats on the stars future.

Yes, Hull and Jackson have been really good as co-GM’s so far but I was taking a look at the salary of the Stars and I cant help but worry about the long-term future of the team. I thought the penguins did a good job this summer keeping most of their core together. That made me wonder, how secure is the Stars core? Here’s what I found (these numbers include player on the minor league affiliate).

Only 7 players are signed through the next 3 years: Richards, Ribeiro, Morrow, Daley, Avery, Vishnevski, Korostin

Only 2 players are signed through the next 4 years or more: Ribeiro and Morrow

Most likely in the next 3 years Barnes, Modano, Zubov, Boucher and maybe even Lehtinen will retire. Who will fill their voids?

At the end of the 09-10 season (in 2 years), 17 of the current players will become free agents.

At the end of this upcoming season, 14 players will become free agents.

Note: the 14 players slated to be free agents after this season are different from the 17 players slated to be free agents in 2 years. That’s 31 players in 2 years.

This offseason the stars lost norstrom, hagman, miettinen, Winchester, holmqvist, khomitski, polak, pushkarev, holtet, timonen, and vas. When thinking about it, losing the first 3 might be the only ones that feel like losses, but the rest shouldn’t be overlooked.

Winchester played a lot more than expected last season, and was decent on the 4th line. Polak was on the verge of making the team the past 2 seasons. Pushkarev and Vas were expected to make the team in the next few years, and timonen was considered a high defensive prospect.

So what’s next? The Stars GM’s have a heck of a headache to deal with in the upcoming seasons. Stars need to find a backup goalie for the next season or 2. Tobias Stephan played a game last season and was amazing, but he needs more time before he can be backup (plus he’s a free agent after this upcoming season).

Stars need to hurry up and lock up their future. They got two of the biggest elements down in ribeiro and morrow. Hopefully turco, Eriksson, ott, lundqvist, robidas, grossman, niskanen and fistric will sign long-term deals within the next two years. I just fear we could be in trouble and turn back into the team where free agents signed knowing they were short-term fill-ins. Disappointing times indeed. Remember audette, kamensky, young, Barnaby, bure, lindros, malhotra, lumme, manson, numminen, nagy, rucinsky? Yeah I sadly remember, and I definitely don’t want to see those times come back again.

Goalies (08-09 salary—last year of contract)
Turco ($5.7m—‘09/’10)
Stephan ($535,000—‘08/’09)
Climie ($650,000—‘08/’09)

The Defense: (08-09 salary—last year of contract)
Zubov ($5.35m—‘08/’09)
Boucher ($2.5m—‘08/’09)
Daley ($2.1m—‘10/’11)
Robidas ($1.5m—‘09/‘10)
Grossman ($1.05m—‘09/’10)
Niskanen ($850,000—’09-‘10)
Fistric ($650,000—‘08/’09)
Jancevski ($550,000—‘09/’10)
Fortunus ($550,000—‘09/’10)
Stafford ($550,000—‘09/’10)

Forwards: (08-09 salary—last year of contract)
Richards ($7.8m—‘10/’11)
Ribeiro ($5m—‘12/’13)
Morrow ($4.1m—‘12/’13)
Lehtinen ($4m—‘08/’09)
Avery ($3.5m—‘11/’12)
Modano ($2.25m—‘09/’10)
Eriksson ($1.5m—‘09/’10)
Ott ($1.35m—‘09/’10)
Lundqvist ($750,000—‘08/’09)
Barch ($575,000—‘09/’10)
Peterson ($550,000—‘09/’10)
Gagnon ($625,000—‘08/’09)
Brunnstrom ($2.225m—‘09/’10)
Shelast ($887,500—‘09/’10)
Neal ($821,667—‘09/’10)
Korostin ($808,333—’10/’11)
Sawada ($750,000—‘09/’10)
Lindgren ($693,867—‘09/’10)
Clune ($625,000—‘09/’10)
Lammers ($618,333—‘08/’09)
Wandell ($600,000—‘09/’10)
Conner ($500,000—‘08/’09)
Naurov ($525,000—‘08/’09)
Wathier ($550,000—‘09/’10)
Wilson ($550,000—‘08/’09)