Stars Trade for Defenseman

[Greenblood94]

Stars add talented young blue-liner in trade with St. Louis

Stars Press Release

June 25, 2004

Stars GM Doug Armstrong has gone on record in saying that the club needed to make a commitment to developing young talent for the future. On Friday, Armstrong made a move to help solidify the Stars' youthful depth along the blue-line, acquiring defenseman Shawn Belle from the St. Louis Blues in exchange for goaltender Jason Bacashihua.

"Shawn Belle is a good two-way defenseman who will be a solid NHL player," Armstrong said. "We're excited to add a player with his type of skating ability to the organization. He's an excellent skater and has good size."

The 19 year-old Belle was St. Louis' first round selection (30th overall) in last year's draft. He won the Bobby Orr Fastest Skater Award at the 2003 CHL Top Prospects Skills Competition prior to the Draft last year.

"One of the reasons we were able to make this trade was the depth that we had at the goaltender position," Armstrong said. "Jason Bacashihua has a bright future ahead of him and we wish him the best. We had three top prospects in Jason, Dan Ellis and Mike Smith and we utilized that strength to add youthful depth among our defensive corps. Belle, Trevor Daley, John Erskine and Matt Nickerson give us a good base of young talent to build upon."

Belle played in 55 games for the Tri-City Americans of the Western Hockey League last season, scoring nine goals and 20 assists for 29 points with 68 penalty minutes and a +5 rating. Belle has appeared in 157 games with Tri-City over the last three seasons, scoring 17 goals and 51 assists for 68 points with 196 penalty minutes.

The 6-2, 225-pound Belle has played for Team Canada in each of the past three years at different levels - winning the silver medal this past Spring at the 2004 World Junior Championships, collecting two gold medals with Canada's Under-18 squad in 2002-03 (one at the 2003 IIHF World Under-18 Championships in Russia and a second at the 2002 Eight Nations Cup in Slovakia where he was named top defenseman), and winning a silver medal with Team Pacific at the 2002 World Under-17 Challenge. For the second consecutive year, he has been invited to Canada's National Junior Team Development Camp this August in Calgary along with the Stars' 2003 third round pick, right wing B.J. Crombeen.

"Shawn has been able to represent his country on several different occasions and has shined every time," Armstrong said. "He has a lot of experience at a young age and he's only going to get better."

Belle seemed as pleased as Armstrong that the young defenseman was now a Dallas Star.

"I'm definitely happy about the trade," Belle said. "You always see Dallas at the top of the pack every year and I'm excited to become part of the organization."

A true two-way defenseman, Belle works every day to improve his game on both ends of the ice.

"I take pride in playing well both on offense and defense. In Tri-City, our coach stressed defense first so I did my best for him," Belle said. "I'm always working on my game and trying to become better every day."

And Belle seems to have the tools to become very good. At last year's draft, St. Louis' Director of Scouting Jarmo Kekalainen told Larry Wigge of StLouisBlues.com, "(Belle) is the best athlete I have EVER seen, and that covers a lot of great NHL stars. I would guess that he could be good at any sport he tried. He's just rock solid and has that quick-twitch muscle reaction that even a lot of the really good players don't have."

The 21 year-old Bacashihua was the odd man out in Dallas' deep pool of goalies. Mike Smith and Dan Ellis have made considerable strides in their development over the past year, giving Armstrong some quality assets to make a deal like this and still keep quality young talent between the pipes for the Stars' future.

Bacashihua was the Stars' first round selection (26th overall) in the 2001 NHL Entry Draft. He appeared in 39 games with Utah (AHL) last season, earning a 13-19-5 record with a 2.66 goals against-average and a .916 save percentage.

Next up for the Stars is the 2004 NHL Entry Draft this weekend in Raleigh, NC, with the first round on Saturday being televised on ESPN2 (11 AM, CST). Dallas owns the 20th overall pick in the first round, as well as three of the first 56 selections (Stars own overall picks 34 and 56 in round two).

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Although I would like to see the Stars get a defenseman in the mold of Derian Hatcher, I think this trade is a good one. The Stars get younger and upgrade their blueliners without taking a hit at another position. The Stars are loaded at goalie, and Bacashihua has kinda been stagnating in Utah, with Turco doing so well. Nice move.

Of course, it's a shame we won't see the Stars play for a couple of years...

Edited June 25, 2004 by Greenblood94

[NTEagle08]

The blueline was one of the main areas that the Stars did struggle with this past year, I wouldn't be surprised if they use their first round pick on a defensemen tomorrow in the draft. I had always thought that when Tugnutt was done as the backup for the Stars that Bacashihua would take his place, but this move pretty much opens the door for Mike Smith to be the backup for whenever the Stars play again. I also bet this trade had something to do with the difficultity of finding a home for 2 goalie prospects in the minors since they are split affiliations with two teams in the AHL next year.

[jgb0607]

Good Trade! Nice to see the Stars do something that makes sense!

[Rudy]

Interesting. This kid sounds like a talented and promising player. Still hate to see JB go, from what i heard, he may be as good or better than Turk. Anxious to see how this works out.