Mike Heika

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Welcome to the NHL, Joe Nieuwendyk, where every move is difficult to make, and every move that you make will be questioned for years.

As a first-year GM, Nieuwendyk wanted a goalie for the future. He obviously did not think that goalie would be Marty Turco, who at 34, is looking for a contract that can take him into retirement.

That wasn't going to happen with the Stars, and that meant Nieuwendyk and the Stars had no goalie under contract for next season.

So the Nieuwendyk was studying a trade that could get him Cory Schneider or Jaroslav Halak, or Josh Harding or Carey Price, but those moves were too expensive, and those GMs were dealing from a position of strength. Truth be told, none of those GMs have to move any of their young goalies this season if they don't want to.

But Atlanta Thrashers GM Don Waddell was different. Kari Lehtonen was such an icon in Atlanta as the second overall pick in 2002, that the Thrashers couldn't keep him if he wasn't going to be the team's No. 1 goalie. Johan Hedberg is a fine backup goalie, and Ondrej Pavelec has moved up and taken the No. 1 job in Atlanta, so Nieuwendyk had a motivated seller with a product he could use.

So Nieuwendyk moved top-level prospect Ivan Vishnevskiy and a fourth-round draft pick to get Lehtonen.

Now, Lehtonen is not perfect. He has had injury issues. But let's use a baseball comparison. If the Rangers had three young catchers and could trade one for a top-level pitcher with injury issues (Ben Sheets, let's say) would you make that trade? You would lose a great prospect, but you could end up with a No. 1 pitcher and still have two really good catchers.

I think that's what Nieuwendyk is thinking. There's no telling what he's going to do with his defensemen going forward, but there is the chance next year that he has too many. He still needs a No. 1 defenseman and will pursue one in trade or free agency.

Vishnevskiy is ready to step up to the NHL and would be disappointed if he is sent back to the minors again. And prospect Philip Larsen will be knocking on the door and may be ready to push into the NHL next year. So Vishnevskiy became available.

Would it have been smarter to move Trevor Daley or Matt Niskanen? Maybe, but that may not have been what Atlanta wanted ... and Nieuwendyk could still trade them later if he finally does get the No. 1 defenseman he is looking for.

So GM Joe spent a little to get a goalie that this team can use. My guess is Nieuwendyk is not done in net.

The Stars have some interesting older prospects in Matt Climie and Brent Krahn in the AHL, and will continue to make a push to get them ready for the NHL. Richard Bachman seems to be falling behind because of his small size, but all he ever seems to do is win at wherever level he plays at. And Tyler Beskorowany is supposed to be in the AHL next season, so there are options there.

Bottom line, don't expect Nieuwendyk to put all of his eggs in the Kari Lehtonen basket. The Stars would like to look at Jussi Rynnas, a 21-year-old Finnish goalie who can become a free agent in the summer. They also will probably keep their ears open if Pekka Rinne becomes an unrestricted free agent out of Nashville in the summer. They probably would consider bringing in a veteran goalie in the summer for a year to back up Lehtonen.

But they have what they consider to be a No. 1 pitcher for their staff right now, and that is a big deal. If he doesn't pan out, they will have a backup plan and they will adjust, but the risk of Lehtonen on a short-term contract for somewhere near $3 million is something Nieuwendyk feels works for this team and this budget.

Q: I heard about the trade, and I'm not so sure I think it's the best deal for us right now. Is this guy even healthy, and does this mean the Stars will trade Marty Turco before the trade deadline? Have you heard anything?

Cyndi D.

HEIKA: Kari Lehtonen said he feels much better after back surgery, and he has played five games in the AHL. So if the Stars traded Marty Turco, Lehtonen is ready to play right now. The problem with trying to trade Turco is that Philadelphia has too many goalies and the Islanders have too many goalies, and Boston might try to move Tim Thomas, and the kids the Stars couldn't get on Montreal and Minnesota and Vancouver are still out there. In other words, there seem to be a lot of options on a flooded market.

Teams interested in acquiring Turco would either want him as a short-term answer for the playoffs or as a possible long-term answer in net where they could start negotiations with him on a long-term contract.

So what teams would take Turco as a rental?

Chicago? They don't have a lot of cap space, and Turco would cost about $1.4 million in cap space for the remainder of the season. He would definitely just be a rental there. But if the Blackhawks don't believe Antti Niemi and Cristobal Huet are good enough, then Turco is a viable option. Chicago is going to have to unload players in the summer just to get under the cap for next season, so the Blackhawks might be tempted to give Dallas a very good player such as Cam Barker, Kris Versteeg or Patrick Sharp if they believe Turco is a big upgrade.

Los Angeles? Maybe. Jonathan Quick is playing great, but he is a rookie, and Turco would be a nice backup plan.

Detroit? I think he would be a perfect fit there, but the Wings are hard against the cap, and I'm just not sure how they could make this work. Plus, Chris Osgood has shown an amazing ability to get hot when the playoffs start, and Turco has not shown that he is any more consistent than Osgood, so why take the chance?

It will be interesting to see what the Stars can do with Turco. The Olympic trade freeze (teams cannot make trades while the Olympics are going on) starts Friday at midnight ET. It comes off on March 1, and the official NHL trade deadline is 2 p.m. March 3. So the window to move Turco is pretty small. And if the Stars don't move him, then it will be interesting to see how they manage their goalies down the stretch while trying to make the playoffs.

Q: Why would the Stars want to hold their training camp in Canada? They don't have their rookie camps here anymore, and they went to Austin last year. We get gypped here as fans.

Bob in Plano

HEIKA: The report out of Charlottetown on Prince Edward Island that the city would like to get the Stars' training camp to move up there is interesting. The obvious pull is that Brad Richards is from PEI, and he would be a great draw to get tourists there. The Stars for years held their training camps in Vail, Colo., because Bob Gainey felt it was a great chance to bond as a team. They cut back because the cost was too high. Charlottetown has made a proposal to pay the Stars to bring camp there, but I wonder if it can work. Training camps are so short now that I can't imagine the camp being any more than three or four days long before the Stars would have to start playing preseason games. If Dallas could convince the NHL to let it play up in Ontario or New York to start the preseason, and those games were manageable, I guess this could work out. But it seems like a lot of effort for a little punch.

We'll see what happens going forward. You could get really unlucky and have the Stars be picked as one of the teams that has to start the season in Europe. Then, you wouldn't see them until the middle of October.

Q: Why would Joe Nieuwendyk give up Ivan Vishnevskiy? Why wouldn't he just give up Matt Niskanen or Trevor Daley. This trade makes no sense to me.

Melissa G.

HEIKA: Every team is going to have its own assessments, and the Stars may feel that Daley and Niskanen are better than Vishnevskiy. Or, it could be that Nieuwendyk had to give up Vishnevskiy, because that's who the Thrashers had targeted. I'm also not sure why the Stars wouldn't have looked at giving up some of the wingers first in trying to make a deal (since they have so many coming up). But the bottom line is the Stars have a lot of young skilled defenseman on their roster, and they can't all play on defense at the same time. Philip Larsen will be in North America next season, and might even make the NHL roster. He and Vishnevskiy have similar games, and the Stars (I believe) think Larsen will be the better player in the long run.

In addition, Niskanen and Daley are skilled defensemen already in the lineup. Plus, you would have to imagine that Nieuwendyk's biggest need going forward is obtaining a high-level skilled defenseman who can lead the defense. If you're keeping Stephane Robidas, you add a top-level guy, you like Nicklas Grossman and Mark Fistric, and you want to believe Larsen will be ready soon, there wasn't going to be a lot of room for Vishnevskiy anyway.

All of that said, the Stars back in 1995 had four talented right-handed right wings in Jere Lehtinen, Jamie Langenbrunner, Todd Harvey and Jarome Iginla. They wanted to get Joe Nieuwendyk, so they decided to give up Iginla. He has gone on to become one of the best players in the league.

Would it have been better to give up Harvey, Lehtinen or Langenbrunner? That's a hard thing to assess. One of the reasons Iginla may have become so good is because the Flames built around him. Who knows what will happen with Vishnevskiy. He might go to Atlanta and become an All-Star. But, that's the same chance the Stars would have taken if they moved Niskanen or Daley or Scott Glennie or Tomas Vincour.

It's always a gamble when you're the GM and you're trying to move young kids.

Q: I think Jamie Benn should stay at center. He looks great at that position. They have quite a few centers, so who do you trade? Plus, Tom Wandell will be back next year. I would definitely trade Mike Ribeiro.

Paul V.

HEIKA: I like what Jamie Benn is doing, and I think he could be a good center, but I think the role they would like him to take is as a checking line center. Now, can he become a checking line center who can score, like Jordan Staal? Or will keeping him at center take away his ability to use his scoring skills?

It's a tough question. Because the team has so many talented left wings (Brenden Morrow, James Neal, Steve Ott) and have left wings playing out of position (Benn, Loui Eriksson, Fabian Brunnstrom), they have some juggling to do. Because they have several centers who have similar skill sets (Brad Richards, Mike Ribeiro and Mike Modano), it's also interesting to ponder moves there.

Bottom line, Joe Nieuwendyk is just starting to take a look at how he wants the pieces to fit together. My guess is the team has more changes coming.

Q: What's the difference between Kari Lehtonen's contract and Marty Turco's. Why wouldn't the Stars just sign Turco to a one-year deal? I think he's a better goalie than Lehtonen. Atlanta has decided its other goalie (Ondrej Pavelec) is better than Lehtonen, so I think that's a bad sign right there.

Craig S.

HEIKA: There is a real challenge in deciding what Marty Turco's value is right now. I do not believe that he wants to sign a one-year deal. Lehtonen is a restricted free agent who will make $3 million this year. If the Stars want to keep Lehtonen in the summer (and I'm pretty sure they do), they only have to make a qualifying offer of a one-year contract for $3 million. If Turco would have agreed to that before, the Stars might have had a deal with him. It's interesting to compare the two goalies, because the Stars have seen enough of Turco over the last eight seasons that I think they want to study another option. The Thrashers have seen enough of Lehtonen and his injury problems that they also would like to try something else. Both goalies could actually benefit from a move to a different team. A lot of times in sports, a move is good for everyone.

We'll see how this works out.