By Gavin Spittle
Heading into free agency next week, the Dallas Stars have made a trade acquiring forward Ryan Hartman from the Philadelphia Flyers for Tyler Pitlick. Both players saw most of their 2018-19 regular season time on the 3rd line. In Hartman, the Stars are getting a feisty player who racked up 74 penalty minutes both in Nashville and Philadelphia. To put that in perspective, that would have led the Stars and was 27th overall in the league.
He did put up 26 points in the rare, 83 regular season schedule due to his trade from Nashville to Philadelphia in the Wayne Simmonds deal. The 24-year-old has 42 goals and 47 assists in 245 career games in the NHL. Hartman is a restricted free agent, so the Stars will have to sign him to a new deal.
From the Philadelphia perspective, the Flyers need cap space to sign three of their restricted free agents, Travis Konecny. Scott Laughton and Ivan Provorov. Pitlick provides that since he is signed for next year at $1 million. Pitlick had a career season with the Stars in 2017-18 racking up 27 points and a +/- of 9. The Stars forward only played in 47 games this year after suffering a wrist injury and struggled to find his way back into the lineup playing in only five of the teams 13 playoff games.
Hartman becomes the fourth Stars restricted free agent joining Jason Dickinson, Brett Ritchie and Julius Honka.