The Dallas Stars are in active negotiations with restricted free agent forward Valeri Nichushkin, according to the club’s general manager Jim Nill.
Following the team’s announcement of the Jamie Benn contract extension, Nill went into detail not only about Benn’s new deal but also the status of Tyler Seguin and his injury and where they are in talks with RFA Valeri Nichushkin, who remains unsigned.
We’ve talked to his agent. We’ve exchanged offers and just going through the process.
Being that Nichushkin is a Russian forward, questions have come up about his potential willingness to head to the KHL, but Nill doesn’t think that’s the issue.
“No, I don’t think so,” Nill said to Dallas News’ Sports Day. “Val’s over here training and I don’t think there’s that issue. Val wants to be in the NHL and he wants to have a good year this year, so I don’t think that’s possible.”
http://gty.im/511491020
The Dallas Stars are certainly trending the right direction as a franchise, and they attribute a lot of that to their openness with players.
Yeah, I think that’s what we pride ourselves on as an organization. Lindy Ruff, myself, Jimmy Lites, I think communication’s important, it doesn’t matter what you do. We pride ourselves on open dialogue with the players and with the agents, and think we’ve had success because of that.
Valeri Nichushkin is coming off of his third season as a pro after missing nearly the entirety of the 2014-15 season due to injury. He netted nine goals and 29 points in 79 games in 2015-16, followed by just one point in 10 playoff games.
Since breaking into the NHL in 2013-14, he has tallied 64 points in 166 games with a plus-17 rating.
The Stars drafted Nichushkin with the 10th overall pick in the first round of the 2013 NHL Draft.