It was an up and down regular-season for the Dallas Stars, as they had a 37-24-8 record before the stoppage, good for 3^rd in the Central Division. They had a 3-5-2 record in their last ten games and were even on a three-game losing streak.

In the height of the mid-season coaching carousel from November-January, The Stars fired head coach Jim Montgomery due to unprofessional conduct and replaced him with assistant coach Rick Bowness on an interim basis. Since the coaching change, the Stars have a 20-13-5 record and trail the first-place St. Louis Blues by twelve points in the Central Division.

Despite all the issues, Roope Hintz was certainly a bright spot. Playing in his second year in the league, Roope Hintz was tied for second on the Stars in goals scored (19) with Captain Jamie Benn, and trailed leader Denis Gurianov (20) by a single goal. Hintz also had the 5^th most points on the Stars before the play stoppage with thirty-three points in sixty games, trailing Tyler Seguin (50), Jamie Benn (39), Miro Heiskanen (35), and Alexander Radulov (34). Under Bowness, Hintz averaged almost twenty seconds more ice time than his previous career average of 14:24. Hintz also had the highest penalty drawn/taken ratio on the team, including a team-high 20 drawn penalties (subtracting all minors/offsetting), and a solid +3 +/- number. On the -30.11 overall Dallas Stars team, Roope Hintz had the second-best individual AB score in 2019-20 (+3.57), trailing only Jason Dickinson (+3.65).

Dallas has about $62 million committed to their 2020-2021 roster, and according to Cap Friendly, have just shy of $19.5 million in Cap Space. They have three pending restricted free agents in Hintz, 2015 1^st round pick Denis Gurianov, and 2012 1^st round pick Radek Faksa, and three pending unrestricted free agents in Corey Perry, Andrej Sekera, and Roman Polak. We were curious as to what Roope Hintz’s new contract should look like, so we ran it through our arbitration analyzer. We determined that Hintz’s closest comparables are Ottawa’s Chris Tierney (also a pending RFA), and Carolina’s Vincent Trocheck. Both of these players made $4.75 million this season, so we believe a potential range for Hintz’s deal will be around $4.5-$5 million per season.

Roope Hintz is a very talented player, and we have no doubt Dallas will come to terms on an extension with him whenever the season is over, as he surely appears to be a promising part of an approaching youth movement in Dallas. Much more to come.