Dallas Stars CEO Jim Lites has called out his two stars, no pun intended, players captain Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin. He has said “They are fucking horseshit, I don’t know how else to put it,”  Lites told Sean Shapiro from The Athletic.  “The team was ok. But (Tyler) Seguin and (Jamie) Benn were terrible.” He continues on to say that team owner Tom Gaglardi is also pissed at them. “These guys are not good enough,” Lites continued. “They’re not good enough for me, they’re not good enough for the owner, and they’re certainly not good enough for the general manager, who I can’t speak for, but it’s not good enough for the job he’s done.”“It’s not about how much money; I don’t resent the money,” Lites said. “It’s about what we expect the money to be. You just can’t win if your best players aren’t your best players. And they aren’t best players.” “I take a lesson from Bob Gainey here,” Lites said. “He said you’d be really successful in this league if you never gave a shit about being invited to players’ daughters’ weddings, and that’s what I think. I don’t give a fuck-. I’m a year-to-year guy and I’ll be damned if a guy who has been as good to me as Tom Gaglardi – as good to this franchise – isn’t getting results, and those players aren’t getting it done. I’m telling you, we are gonna run through a GM who does everything he can to make the team better because we aren’t getting results.” 

To their credit, both Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn have taken responsibility as well by saying:

“Not good enough,” Seguin said, according to The Athletic. “I’ve got to play better. I’m trying to do a job, and I haven’t had the right results.”

“I think it’s pretty self-explanatory; if this team wants to get to the next level that starts with myself,” Benn added. “And that’s exactly what needs to happen, we need to get better.”

Jamie Benn is currently in the 2nd year of an 8 year $76 million contract that pays him $13 million this year and an annual cap hit of $9.5 million/season. That does make his the 3rd highest paid player in the NHL right now, that should change this summer though with Auston Matthews and Patrick Laine being RFA’s on July 1. He has not put up bad numbers with 15 goals, 15 assists for 30 points in 38 games. Tyler Seguin just signed an 8-year extension worth $78.8 million back in the fall which starts next season. He currently has 11 goals, 21 assists for 32 points in 38 games so again not too bad of numbers,

Now maybe this is just the GM and CEO trying to fire the team up as they are not reaching their expectations this season so far but if they, by that I mean Dallas as a whole, not just Benn and Seguin, continue on this road for the rest of the season they might be a team to watch as sellers on Trade Deadline Day (February 25) and these two players may see their names on the chopping block either then or during the offseason, maybe at the draft.

If these two do become available, I do know about 30 teams who would be willing to take on this “Dead Weight” if the price is right and Dallas retains a good portion of their salary.

*Used with information gathered from HockeyFeed.com and The Athletic*