Even after making it to the cup finals last year and having made improvements, the Stars are still being looked at as underdogs going into the '16-'17 season.  "Awesome position to be in" said second year GM Kato.  With less than half of the team returning, Kato emptied out the cupboard of picks from the next couple years to get players he thought would fit his team's philosophy.  "I know our draft scouting is a little spotty, so we went with what we know," Kato said.  The team went ahead and made several trades to fill the many holes left by the pending free agents.  Also right before this year's draft, Kato traded highly touted William Nylander to get, what ended up to be, Zachary Werenski.  Kato explained the deal saying, "We knew that we were deep with offensive players, so we took a chance by taking the young defenseman.  We believe he will anchor our other young defenseman for a very long time."  Fellow GM from the Bruins, Lifshatz, was heard saying, "it's pretty impressive what he has done with the team.  I'm sure the Stars will go deep again this year."  

Notable ADDITIONS through trade:              through Free Agency:                 Notable SUBTRACTIONS:

JG Pageau                                                  Patrick Marleau                          William Nylander

Mark Letestu                                              Laurie Korpikoski                        Marcus Johansson

Jaden Schwartz                                          Francois Beauchemin                  Matt Belesky

Jamie McGinn                                             Retro Berra                               Daniel Winnik

Ryan Suter                                                 Al Montoya                                Chris Kelly

Marco Scandella                                                                                         Jonas Brodin

Jared Spurgeon                                                                                          MA Fleury

"I love the team we've assembled, everyone is going to contribute in big ways.  With all the hate we have been receiving, except from GM Yee, we will relish each and every win we will get against those other dummies," Kato said.  The GM seems content on letting his team's play speak for itself.