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Player profile: Trevor Daley a solid Stars soldier, but can somebody do it better?


G.J. McCARTHY / Staff Photographer


We'll continue our annual summer Player Profiles today with defenseman Trevor Daley.

Trevor Daley


Shoots: Left

Age: 29

Height: 5-11,  Weight: 198

Contract: In third year of six-year deal that averages $3.3 million a season.

Coming off: A season in which he had 13 points (4 goals, 9 assists) in 44 games.

The indications you get from the Stars organization is that there is a belief the defense is going to change in the coming years (if not this season). They either expect players like Jamie Oleksiak, Kevin Connauton and Patrik Nemeth to move up from the minors or they expect the Stars to be in the market for a top-level defenseman in trade of free agency.

That leaves you to wonder what happens to the current guys.

While it's easy to say Sergei Gonchar and Stephane Robidas will slide aside in coming years because of age, it's not quite as easy to ponder the future of players like Trevor Daley. He has been a solid soldier throughout the past, and you can make the argument that the Stars could definitely use him when they get serious about contending for a Stanley Cup.

Sure, there are critics of Daley who will argue this, but it seems he could be that elusive do-it-all complementary defensemen that so many Stanley Cup contenders have had. Rob Scuderi did it for both Pittsburgh and Los Angeles. Dennis Seidenberg has filled that role for Boston. Johnny Oduya did it for Chicago last season. Is Daley that different from those players?

Daley is not big (listed at 5-11, 196), but he is thick and has a low center of gravity. He can defend the area around the net and doesn't lose many leverage battles. He also has quick feet, can skate well, and has solid puck-handling skills. When you look at possible future minute munchers for the Stars in Brenden Dillon or Oleksiak, you can imagine Daley as a partner. He can skate the puck out of danger, and help transition to offense, and he's good enough to offer defensive support and experience to a younger player.

The question, I guess, is can someone else do it better?

Would you rather have Scuderi or Oduya or Seidenberg? Or would you rather go out and find someone like them who are younger? That always seem to be the question with the Stars. It's not that Robidas or Daley or Alex Goligoski are bad, it's just that fans would like someone better. They want to be a team with a couple of top two defensemen instead of a team with a bunch of second tier guys.



He had 13 points (4 goals, 9 assists) in 44 games last year during the lockout-shortened season, andis pretty much guaranteed for somewhere around 25 points in a regular 82-game season. What's more, he has been a plus player for each of the last five seasons. In fact, at plus-16 over that span, Daley has been a pretty positive contributor over a span where the Stars weren't a great team.

That has to mean something, right?

Through the previous two coaching changes, we have heard the Stars speculate on turning Daley into a more offensive force. There have been experiments in allowing him to get the green light to join the attack, and some talk of having him on the No. 1 power play unit.

But, despite all of that, Daley was used more as a penalty killer than a power play specialist, and seems to see more defensive starts at even strength than offensive starts. He seems to be a defensive defenseman now who has a little more offensive upside than the super skilled guy many thought he could become.

And there's nothing wrong with that. Like we said about Scuderi and Seidenberg and Oduya, that makes you versatile enough to play on any pair, and important enough to make your team pretty good (if you're not the No. 1 defenseman).

So as the "new look" Stars try to figure out what they should keep and what they should replace, Trevor Daley will get a very close inspection this season. There's a chance that if the Stars do move him elsewhere, but they have to think about why another team wants him. He could be just the missing piece a contender needs to get to the Stanley Cup finals…and that's something the Stars need to consider as they go through their assessments.

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