Rewind to June 30, 2017 really quickly and fill in this sentence: The first person that the Dallas Stars will sign on July 1 is….
Who was on your mind the day before the free agency market opened? Maybe another defenseman to tack onto the blue line? What about another center to add depth? And you probably entertained yourself with the rumors about Alexander Radulov and Justin Williams at least once or twice.
But there is an absolute certainty that forward Tyler Pitlick never crossed your mind. There’s probably a good chance that you had never even heard of Pitlick until Dallas announced him as their first signing of the 2017 offseason just minutes after the free agency market opened.