Sheldon Souray
Age: 34 (Born July 13, 1976)
Height/Weight: 6’4″/233 pounds
Shoots: Left-handed
The Stars power-play just got a lot more menacing with the signing of Sheldon Souray. Souray, who signed a one-year, $1.65 million deal, has an absolute cannon of a shot (one of the fastest in the NHL) and will surely be one of the pointmen on the powerplay. The 12-year-veteran has struggled a bit with injuries the past few seasons and actually ended up in the AHL last year after not playing well for the Edmonton Oilers. His contract was bought out by the Oilers and the Stars jumped on the opportunity of signing him.
During the 2008-2009 season, Souray was a major component of the Oilers power-play, scoring 12 times and assisting on 11 others. As long as he can stay healthy, there is still a lot of ability left in Souray to make a difference for this team. During the 2006-2007 season, he set an NHL record for defensemen by scoring 19 power-play goals.
With all these signings, it’s pretty clear that the Stars had a plan going into free agency of what types of players they wanted to get. Everyone that they signed are described as physical players, with the forwards also playing well on the defensive end, and they also improved on special teams. They shored up the penalty-kill with defensive minded forwards and added a big shot and a physical presence on the power-play. In my opinion they had an excellent offseason, even with the loss of Brad Richards. Next season will certainly be an interesting year for the team.
Now if only we could get an owner…
