The 2019 NHL Trade Deadline is one week away, and the Dallas Stars could end up being a key player. But if GM Jim Nill is searching for a big addition, which assets from within the organization might he be willing to offer up in return?

The next eight days will help define the 2018-19 Dallas Stars in one way or another. Whether that’s for better or for worse and to what extent it defines the team is unclear right now, but we can be assured that it will play a part.

That’s what the NHL Trade Deadline does for teams: it helps in defining them. It’s a time of year where playoff challengers look to get better in the present and bottom-tier teams look to sell in an effort to build for the future. It’s properly positioned in the regular season schedule so teams have as much time as possible to determine their potential end-of-season path.

But the process itself can be incredibly complicated. It doesn’t take place during a set timeframe, there aren’t a designated number or list of buyers and sellers, and every team can approach it in a different way. The NHL Trade Deadline brings plenty of speculation, assumption, and even a bit of confusion at times. It all depends on how a team attacks it (or if they attack it at all).

And that’s where the Stars currently find themselves. To make a deal or not to make a deal? If we look to the past for help, it seems obvious that Dallas has to make a move.

After all, Feb. 26, 2018 went down in the history books as one of the more conflicting days in franchise history. On that day, Dallas Stars GM Jim Nill allowed the 2018 NHL Trade Deadline to pass without making a move. The Stars had been on a recent hot stretch, but still had a few holes in their lineup that could have used filling.

Instead of going out and making a deal, Nill stepped back and reinvested his trust in the lineup that Dallas had rolled with through the first half of the season.

The Stars repaid his trust with a 7-9-4 finish to the season that included a devastating 0-6-2 stretch throughout the month of March. Ben Bishop hit the injured reserve list early in the month, the Dallas offense continued to get colder and more one-dimensional down the stretch, and Nill’s plans fell through as the Stars were removed from the 2018 Stanley Cup Playoff picture when it mattered most.

This year, the Dallas Stars find themselves in a dangerously similar position. Dallas built a hot streak to start the month, but has since seen their flaws exposed in a 1-3-1 showing during their recent road trip. Bishop has missed the past two weeks of action. And sitting at the center of it all in a prominent light is the Stars’ continuous lack of quality depth scoring.

Their bottom-nine forwards are not getting the puck in the back of the net as often as they need to be, which leaves their “big guns” (Tyler Seguin, Jamie Benn, Alexander Radulov) in charge of generating the majority of the offensive pressure. Playoff-caliber teams boast well-roundedness in their offensive attack and have various lines that can score on a nightly basis.

The Dallas Stars need that. Their offense sits 29th in the NHL with an average of 2.50 goals for per game. No other team currently sitting in a playoff position has a goals for average below 2.76. In the past two games, the Stars’ lack of offensive pressure became painfully obvious as they were outscored by a combined score of 9-0 at the hands of the Tampa Bay Lightning and Carolina Hurricanes.

And considering that winning in the postseason requires goal support, Dallas needs to add some firepower to their lineup. Nill has acknowledged on various occasions that he would like to add more scoring to the Dallas offense and is constantly scanning the market for trade opportunities.

That begins with the second line. While the first, third, and fourth lines have serviceable troops at the moment, the second line is where they fall short. So, Nill could really benefit from picking up another scorer for the top six.

But, for every midseason addition that is sought after, there must be a return. It’s a fact of the deadline that is often overlooked by fans eager to simply bring in talent and see their team improve for the homestretch.

That doesn’t change the fact that a return must be completed. And with the Stars’ current situation, it could end up being a bit trickier than you expect.

Dallas is close to the cap wall, so a roster player will almost certainly have to be sent back if Dallas is trading for an impact player. And, depending on an incoming player’s salary, multiple players may have to be moved. It’s all a part of the intricate process.

And if the Stars target a player, what style of player might his team want in return? How deep will Dallas have to go in their talent pool to create a viable deal? Though you might not want to hear it, the Stars will likely have to go deeper than you might initially hope or assume.

There’s a lot of moving parts in every trade, and Nill has his hands full with plenty of options. As a result, there’s not really any point in trying to project exact trades. Instead, we can look at which players the Dallas Stars might target that could make them markedly better as well as which organizational pieces they might be willing to offer up in exchange.

We took a look at some potential and realistic targets last Monday. But this week, let’s flip the coin and try to figure out which pieces the Stars might be willing to use as trade chips in the upcoming week in order to gain a valuable asset that can help turn the team into an assured playoff contender.

This is nothing more informed speculation at this point, but could end up having some truth behind it over the next eight days. Let’s take a look.