Free agents may be signed on July 1, but the seeds of a transaction are often planted months in advance.



In the fall or the winter an idea gets sown. Maybe it happens after a breakout performance, perhaps it’s the product of a hunch after watching a player in person, something that tells a GM, “Hey, let’s put this guy on our list.” Many ideas, and seeds, don’t make it past the initial planting, they die in the hole and become a “what if?” without proper nutrition or a real opportunity to grow.



But some ideas end up sprouting, the opportunity for that hunch to grow into an acquisition takes shape. And come July that seed of optimism, planted eight or nine months earlier, comes to fruition.



That’s what happened last summer when the Stars signed Tyler Pitlick to a three-year, $3 million contract. Nine months earlier Pitlick had scored twice in a span of eight days against the Dallas Stars in November of 2017. Stars...