Karlis Skrastins to a two year deal worth $2.75 million, $1.375 cap hit per year.
Skrastins is a great shot blocker and good on the penalty kill.

Stars have re-signed Jere Lehtinen to a one year deal. $1.5 million base salary and $1 million more in incentives

Dallas Stars 2009 draft picks

1st round 8th overall pick Center/Right Wing Scott Glennie Brandon Wheat Kings right Shot 6′1 177. Oakville, Ontario
Glennie was a natural center, but being converted to right wing this past season. He’ll move back to center next season.

“We’re very happy about selecting Scott Glennie with the eighth overall selection,” said Stars Director of Amateur Scouting Tim Bernhardt. “Scott brings a lot of speed and skill. He has very good vision and sees the ice well. He’s a right wing but he’s also a centerman so we don’t know what he’ll play down the road. His coach said he will play center next year and he’s played a lot of center before. But we’re very pleased that we were able to draft Scott.”

More info all from this link.

“A highly skilled offensive forward who can set it up and also finish. Great passer and shooter. He needs to improve the defensive and physical side of his game to create more room for himself at the next level. Strength will come naturally with maturity.” - International Scouting Services

“He is a good hockey player, highly skilled with natural goal scoring instincts,” said a veteran NHL scout from an upper echelon Western Conference team. “I’ve seen him play on the wing and in the middle, but I think I like him down the middle because of his creativity.”

“Combines nice hands and strong work ethic. Tremendous improvement in skating and is now one of the fastest players in the draft. … Plays with energy and isn’t afraid to mix it up in the heavy going or take a hit. Will need to improve overall strength. … Good penalty killer and smart defensively.” - Red Line Report 2009 Draft Guide

“Glennie is a very determined player with a non-stop motor. He is fearless in his approach and thrives in going into the dirty areas to dig out pucks for his teammates. Glennie often comes out with the pucks and has the vision to spot his teammates going to the slot. His ability to play in traffic is top-notch..” - McKeen’s 2008 Draft Guide
Potential first line center after he develops physically.

Also of note Chiasson is highly skilled offensively.

Potential Second line scorer.

“I would say I like North American hockey better than Europe. In Europe it’s more of a technical game, but in North America it’s a more physical game, which I like better. I think since I played in Edmonton it helped my draft ranking. Playing in Edmonton made me a different person than I was before. It was a tough move for me because I left my whole family, my friends and my girlfriend back home, but it made me a stronger person and it turned out well in the end.” - Tomas Vincour

I mean, really, really fast. I wonder if Crawford and Tip ran into each other while entering / exiting. How awkward would that have been?

Like I said, I’m surprised at how quickly all this went down. Obviously Nieuwendyk had some idea that he would be doing this when he took the job, and to be honest, I’m not that surprised. Tippett had a long time to do what was asked of him, and you can chalk it up to bad luck, injuries or unfortunate playoff match-ups, but at some point, you gotta bring home what you’ve been asked to retrieve.

Jason seems to think that Crawford was brought in because his style fits a lot of the forwards that the team has now and have coming up.

Based on his past coaching history, players that are good skaters and are skilled will be a good fit in his system. He has a preference towards offense, significantly more than Tippett did. The good news is, a lot of the current Dallas Stars forwards fit this style perfectly.

Crawford is very demanding and asks for a lot of his players. He’s not afraid to play the backup goalie either. If the team has the depth he likes to roll four lines along with matching lines based on matchups. He didn’t have the depth in Vancouver to use four lines. If a line is working well together for a month, then it doesn’t score for two games, Crawford won’t break it up.

He’s also good at developing players. In Vancouver, he developed Todd Bertuzzi into one of the best players in the NHL before the incident against Colorado, which Bertuzzi could not overcome. He developed Ed Jovanovski, Mattias Ohlund, the Sedins, Markus Naslund and Brendan Morrison.

Per TSN, the Dallas Stars have hired Marc Crawford as their new head coach.

According to TSN.

Not shocking - discuss on the message board here.

I knew they were going to re-sign Climie, but Brent Krahn as well? This is a bit odd, since Richard Bachman and Climie are expected to split starts on the AHL team in Cedar Park.

The only other thing I can think of if Bachman is going to start next season in Idaho, which seems unlikely.

The Stars will announce Joe Nieuwendyk as the new general manager tomorrow.
Nieuwendyk was a Special Assistant to the general manger in Toronto, before that he was a special consultant assistant general manger in Florida. Nieuwendyk was key in the Leafs signing college free agents Tyler Bozak and Christain Hanson.

Les Jackson will go back to being director of scouting and Hull will become executive vice president.

Schedule
All games will be on NHL Network(US)/Sportsnet(Canada) and RDS(Canada)
May 15th Kelowna vs Rimouski 6 PM CST
May 16th Drumondville vs Windsor 3:30 PM
May 17th Rimouski vs Windsor 3:30 PM
May 18th Drumondville vs Kelowna 6 PM
May 19th Windsor vs Kelowna 6 PM
May 20th Rimouski vs Drumondville 6 PM
May 21st Tiebreaker game 6 PM
May 22nd Semi-Final 6 PM
May 24th Final 3:30 PM

#14 Kelowna is Jamie Benn

2009 Draft Eligible Players
#29 Drummondville Tigers D Dmitry Kulikov
#2 Kelowna Rockets D Colin Bowan
#6 Windsor Spitfires D Ryan Ellis
There’s more then just those three, but wasn’t going to list every player.

2010 Draft Eligible Players
#4 Windsor Taylor Hall Center