Karl Alzner is one of the bigger names who should be hitting the NHL free agent market in about six weeks. The career Washington Capital is a defense-first defenseman who seems likely to be seeking a large deal like another guy we’ve recently discussed: Kris Russell. He plays on the left side, and the Stars have some work to do on the left side. If the Stars are serious about improving their blueline Alzner could be someone they touch base with.
Alzner is a 6-foot-3, 220-pound 28-year-old Canadian defenseman with 591 regular season games packed into nine seasons. He was drafted 5th overall by the Washington Capitals in the 2007 NHL Draft as the second defenseman drafted that year (behind Thomas Hickey), and one of nine to go in the first round. Fellow free agents Kevin Shattenkirk and Brendan Smith are among that group with New York Rangers captain Ryan McDonagh.
Alzner is a defensive-minded player who, in his career, has a total of 117 points. For comparison’s sake, John Klingberg has 147 already. Whoever ultimately signs Alzner is doing so for his defensive ability and his ability to kill penalties. Both of these qualities were severely lacking for the 2017 Stars so Alzner seems like a perfect fit in that regard.
However, that defensive-minded label is problematic. Kris Russell fits under the same label, and they really aren’t much different statistically. The biggest difference is their penalty differential. Alzner puts his teams shorthanded at a much higher rate than Russell does. If you’re the Stars, how much money do you want to commit to a left-sided, more-penalty-prone Russell?
The desire to improve defensively is real. It makes a lot of sense, but there are a number of landmines buried under the path to that desired improvement. Zeroing in on traditional defensive defensemen is the biggest potential problem. They can have some value, but they have to be able to feed the transition game or else they will constantly be playing defense. It doesn’t matter how good a player is defensively. If they are always playing defense instead of moving the game forward, they’re going to be putting their team behind the eight ball.
Given the nature of a penalty-killing unit, Alzner could provide some value as a penalty killer who plays bottom-pair minutes, but that assumes he won’t be signing a large deal. Even Russell got a bit over $3 million, so Alzner can expect some cash. The Stars do have cheaper options. Is it reasonable to expect him to give you better value than Patrik Nemeth, Stephen Johns, or even Jamie Oleksiak under a Ken Hitchcock defense? Maybe, but probably not enough for the money to be worth it.
I really want to like potential Stars defensemen. The Stars do need to improve, but throwing money out there just to throw it out there isn’t going to fix the problems that ail the Stars. If the Stars can find a player to fit the budget who can get the puck out of their own end they will get much more bang for their buck than spending on a defensive-minded defender like Karl Alzner.
