Diary of a Sports Diva July 12, 2007

Dallas Stars' President Jim Lites posted an "unfiltered" letter from the club, apparently in response to some of the criticism the team has been facing at home.

"There have been a lot of things written and said over the last two weeks, many of which have painted a negative perception of the Dallas Stars as a hockey club and where we are headed in the future. We've been called everything from 'stupid' to 'asleep at the wheel' to 'out of touch,' simply because we did not make a big splash in the free agent market.

"I'm here to tell you that these beliefs, columns, opinions and statements couldn't be further from the truth. In fact, it's downright unfair. Contrary to what some have written or said, we haven't gone stupid overnight and we do have a plan in place."

He reminds the readers the club has been very successful in its last 11 seasons and last year served as one of the best teams in the league with 107 points. Of course, all that was wiped out with a first-round exit.

Lites adds:

"Would we like to add scoring? Yes. But we have to operate under the salary cap and do the best we can with the chips we have to play with at the table. We want to give ourselves the best chance for success, both short and long term. What we can't do is take unreasonable risks on contracts, which was something we could do under the old system. We can't take an extra center on a long-term deal and see if we can make him change positions and make him fit into our system. We tried that with Pierre Turgeon and it didn't work. That was OK when it was just money. We can't take that risk now with the salary cap.

"These might sound like excuses to some but it is the reality of the business model we are in."

Hmm. That with his saying they refuse to mortgage the future on a free agent signing probably doesn't bode well with Dallas fans.