Mats Zuccarello fit with the Stars. After he was traded from the Rangers to Dallas at the trade deadline for a pair of conditional draft picks, Zuccarello instantly developed chemistry and conjured creativity in the team's top six.

Almost four months later, he still fits with the Stars. His playmaking ability added another dimension to the Stars offense both at even-strength and on the power play, and could again be the piece the team adds to deepen their top six behind Tyler Seguin, Jamie Benn, Alexander Radulov and Roope Hintz.

There's just the pesky contract he now has to sign.

Zuccarello will be an unrestricted free agent on July 1, eligible to sign with any team in the league. Until then, he can only sign with the Stars, and until June 23, can only speak with the Stars about his future. Zuccarello said all the right things during exit interviews a month ago, about how much he enjoyed Dallas and about how it's now his adopted team after spending his entire career in New York.

"This is my team now," Zuccarello said at the time. "We'll see what's going on. I'm kind of a guy when someone believes in you and wants you, I usually like that. We'll see."

But the decision is still Zuccarello's to make on where he wants to play the next few seasons and if that place is in Dallas.

So what kind of deal is Zuccarello in line for? What other factors come into play during the process and what do the group of comparables look like?

Who is in the group of alike players?

Dallas Stars center Matts Zuccarello, of Norway, plays against the St. Louis Blues during the first period in Game 5 of an NHL second-round hockey playoff series Friday, May 3, 2019, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson) (Jeff Roberson / AP)

Before deciding which players can serve as fair comparisons to Zuccarello, we have to decide first what Zuccarello is. He is hitting unrestricted free agency for the first time (he signed his last contract with the Rangers in March 2015 before his deal ran out) at 31 years old and will be 32 years old on Sept. 1 before the start of next season.

Zuccarello is a creative, offensive-minded winger who can play on the top power play unit but doesn't kill penalties and just averaged a career-high 19:51 of ice time per game this season, although he topped that figure just once in non-overtime games during his 15 regular-season and postseason games with the Stars.

This will likely be Zuccarello's last chance to cash in with a big-money, multi-year contract and he probably would have posted his sixth straight season with at least 49 points had he not broken his arm blocking a shot in February.

In the last six years, there have been 14 wingers between 30 and 35 to sign contracts of at least three years and with a cap hit of at least $5 million. Here they are.

Blake Wheeler, Winnipeg: 5 years, $8.25 million cap hit.

James Neal, Calgary: 5 years, $5.75 million cap hit.

Patric Hornqvist, Pittsburgh: 5 years, $5.3 million cap hit.

Alexander Radulov, Dallas: 5 years, $6.25 million cap hit.

T.J. Oshie, Washington: 8 years, $5.75 million cap hit.

Alex Steen, St. Louis: 4 years, $5.75 million cap hit.

Loui Eriksson, Vancouver: 6 years, $6 million cap hit.

Andrew Ladd, NY Islanders: 7 years, $5.5 million cap hit.

Mikhail Grabovski, NY Islanders: 4 years, $5 million cap hit.

Thomas Vanek, Minnesota: 3 years, $6.5 million cap hit.

Mike Cammalleri, New Jersey: 5 years, $5 million cap hit.

Matt Moulson, Buffalo: 5 years, $5 million cap hit.

Patrick Marleau, San Jose: 3 years, $6.67 million cap hit.

Daniel Sedin, Vancouver: 4 years, $7 million cap hit.

Some of these are outliers.

Wheeler and Sedin were franchise cornerstones who had 90-plus-point seasons. Marleau had played 1,202 games when he signed that contract with the Sharks, more than twice the amount of games Zuccarello has played (511) at this point in his career. The deals for Moulson, Cammalleri, Vanek and Grabovski were completed in the summer of 2014, meaning the market that defined their value may not apply anymore in the summer of 2019. Oshie's eight-year contract isn't likely to be matched by Zuccarello.

That leaves Neal, Hornqvist, Radulov, Steen, Eriksson and Ladd as potential comps for a Zuccarello deal, and all carried cap hits between $5.3 million and $6.25 million.

What about Zuccarello's production?

Dallas Stars center Mats Zuccarello (36) attempts a shot on St. Louis Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington (50) during game 1 of an NHL second-round playoff series at Enterprise Center in St. Louis Missouri on Thursday, April 25, 2019. (Shaban Athuman/Staff Photographer) (Shaban Athuman / Staff Photographer)

Zuccarello's NHL is a unique one among this group. He didn't play in the NHL until he was 23 years old after playing professionally in Norway and Sweden, and split time in the AHL once he arrived in North America. Because of this, he had less NHL mileage on his ledger with just 511 games played. The only player with fewer at the time of his contract was Radulov with 230, since he spent a big chunk of his career in the KHL.

In Norway, Zuccarello never played more than 43 games in a season. In Sweden, he never topped 55 games. For lack of a better term, Zuccarello will be a "fresh" 32 years old given both his history and his playing style as a finesse forward instead of a power forward like Jamie Benn.

He is also not a goal-scorer like many of the wingers in this group. Zuccarello's 0.223 goals per game is the lowest among the group, but his 0.472 assists per game are the highest in the group, much more than Eriksson's 0.403 per game.

Zuccarello's point production on a per game (0.695) basis falls in line with Neal (0.704), Eriksson (0.695) and Radulov (0.678), though Radulov is just about the only player that hasn't witnessed a dropoff in his performance with climbing age.

Neal suffered through a career-worst season in Calgary this season with 19 points. Eriksson hasn't hit 30 points in the three seasons since signing his deal. Hornqvist's only full season since signing his extension resulted in his lowest output as a Penguin (37 points in 69 games). Ladd scored 23 goals his first season with the Islanders, but 15 total in the two since.

Since Zuccarello's game isn't predicated on speed or physicality, and more so based on vision and creativity, a steep dropoff would be unexpected, though it's reasonable to expect a tailing off during the duration of the contract.

Is the fifth year worth it?

Should Zuccarello sign a five-year contract instead of a three- or four-year one, he would be 36 years old during the final year of the deal, the same age Jason Spezza will be next season. In the past 10 years, 77 forwards have played at 36 years old. Only 18 totaled at least 40 points during that season.

Some of them were elite players like Joe Thornton, Martin St. Louis, Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk, Marian Hossa and Jarome Iginla. Zuccarello doesn't fall into that category, but players like Justin Williams, Mike Fisher, Jason Chimera and Chris Kunitz also reached 40 points at 36 years old.

Zuccarello could conceivably produce like those players, easing the potential sting of adding a fifth season to his contract. But he could also finish like Danny Briere (25 points), Patrick Sharp (21 points), Alex Burrows (14 points) or Brenden Morrow (eight points).

Older players are typically overpaid to finish their career since they were underpaid to start it, and that's just the market built in the NHL under the collective bargaining agreement. Past results suggest signing a 36-year-old forward is a bad deal, but it may be the cost of receiving the first few years of the contract.

Does this year's group of wingers impact his market value?

Dallas Stars' Roope Hintz, of Finland, is congratulated by Mats Zuccarello, right, after scoring during the first period in Game 2 of an NHL second-round hockey playoff series against the St. Louis Blues Saturday, April 27, 2019, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson) (Jeff Roberson / AP)

You could argue that Neal's contract last season was artificially inflated because the crop of wingers wasn't bountiful last July.

Evander Kane was the biggest fish, and he didn't even hit free agency since he signed with the Sharks before July 1. After Kane, the marquee wingers remaining were James van Riemsdyk, Neal and David Perron. The market can help explain Neal's contract (and maybe even the four years given to Antoine Roussel and the three years given to Blake Comeau).

Does Zuccarello benefit from a similar situation this season? Doesn't look like it.

You could argue that Zuccarello is the fifth-best winger (factoring in age) on the market this summer, behind Artemi Panarin, Jordan Eberle, Gustav Nyqvist and Ryan Dzingel. Jeff Skinner would have also been above Zuccarello before he signed an eight-year extension worth $9 million annually.

Behind Zuccarello, teams can settle for players like Micheal Ferland, Joonas Donskoi, Marcus Johansson or Brett Connolly. So the dearth of wingers isn't there this season to inflate Zuccarello's value on the open market.

What other factors come into play?

The scene of inside American Airlines Center in preparation for the 2018 NHL Draft in Dallas, Thursday, June 21, 2018. (Jae S. Lee/The Dallas Morning News) (Jae S. Lee / Staff Photographer)

The most obvious one is the first-round pick that the Stars would have to send the Rangers in order to re-sign Zuccarello. Instead of giving New York a 2020 third-round pick, Dallas would instead send them a 2020 first-round pick (The additional cost of a surrendered first-round pick could suppress Zuccarello's value in Dallas, like draft pick compensation did with some of baseball's best free agents).

Obviously, the Stars would like to keep that pick in a perfect world, but the current world is one with a 30-year-old Jamie Benn next season and an elite goalie in Ben Bishop. This is a window to try to win a Stanley Cup instead of waiting for a 2020 draft pick to develop.

While no state taxes in Texas assuredly helps the Stars, it's not as big an advantage as often thought. Players are taxed on their salaries based on where they earn the money, so for road games, players are taxed by the city and state they play in. For example, if the Stars had a week-long road trip through California, they would get taxed that week by California.

But if the contract is structured with heavy signing bonuses paid in July (like Seguin and Benn's are), the no-tax effect is amplified.