In Wedgewood and Namestnikov, Stars add stability in net, depth up front

The Stars patched a potential major hole and tweaked a need for depth before Monday's NHL trade deadline.
With veteran goalie Braden Holtby hobbled by a lower-body injury, Dallas
acquired Scott Wedgewood from the Arizona Coyotes
on Sunday night to give 23-year-old Jake Oettinger some possible relief from what's been a very heavy schedule. The Stars also
added a versatile forward in Vladislav Namestnikov
in a trade with Detroit on Monday, and the 29-year-old should offer more skill, scoring and depth.

Dallas started the year with goalies Ben Bishop, Anton Khudobin and Holtby on the NHL roster, with Jake Oettinger in the AHL. However, injuries ended Bishop's career and sidelined Khudobin with hip surgery. Then, in the past month, Holtby's been sidelined with a nagging injury that's limited him from practicing and allowed him play just once in the past 15 games.
Because of that, Oettinger's had to carry the load alone. The Stars placed Holtby on long-term injured reserve retroactive to March 8 and expect Wedgewood to step up and serve as the regular backup goalie.
"We're asking a lot of Jake here, and there's major concerns with that," Stars general manager Jim Nill said. "We realize that right now Holtby might not be able to play for a while. And with the schedule, we're exposing [Jake] to potential injuries, so we needed to add another goalies. We've seen Scott play lots, we've played against him and he's played very well. He was a good fit, and the acquisition cost worked. We have to work within the cap."

Wedgewood has a cap hit of $825,000. Namestnikov has a cap hit of $2 million, but Detroit retained half of his remaining salary. By placing Holtby on LTIR and making a couple of other moves, the Stars were able to work around the cap. But their options were limited by the budget and all the injuries.
"We started the year with four NHL goalies," said Nill. "If you would've told me six months ago that I'd have to make a trade for a goalie, I would've said why would I have to do that? But that's where you've got to be flexible. You deal with it, and you adjust your roster."
The Stars believe they're in a good place going forward. Miro Heiskanen has been battling mononucleosis but skated on Monday. Andrej Sekera returned to play Sunday at Washington. Dallas is pretty healthy and believes it has the depth to take on a hectic schedule coming up.
"I think we're in a good spot right now," Nill said. "The biggest thing is we have to be more consistent. We've got to play well, but when we play our game, we're a tough team to play."
Dallas went 2-2-0 on its recent road trip and sits 34-24-3, one point out of a playoff spot. The Stars have a big game against Edmonton on Tuesday, so the battle continues. Namestnikov might not be in Dallas in time to play Tuesday, but he'll add elements that can help a forward group that's been shuffled in recent games.
While the top line of Roope Hintz with Joe Pavelski and Jason Robertson has been consistent, the remaining three lines are being juggled. The checking line of Radek Faksa with Michael Raffl and Luke Glendening has been pretty consistent, but it appears now the coaching staff can look to see how Namestnikov fits in a group with Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin, Alexander Radulov, Denis Gurianov, Jacob Peterson, Marián Studenič and Joel Kiviranta.
"He's a good player, he's versatile, he can play up and down the lineup and we thought with the acquisition cost, it was a good move for our team," Nill said.
Peterson has come in as a rookie and scored 10 goals. Studenic was acquired on waivers and has earned minutes in recent games. Can Dallas find a combination that adds to the depth scoring and forces players to fight for a spot in the lineup?
"Petey's had a great season. He was a guy who was projected to be down in Austin, but he had a good camp and caught some eyes. There are times he's hit the wall and you have to recharge. As the season goes on, the teams get harder and harder (to play against), but he's adjusted well. We added Studenic and we didn't know how he'd fit in, but he's added some speed to our lineup. These young guys have all added something."
Now, he's hoping a couple of new veterans will do the same.