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Dallas Stars negotiating to move training camp to Prince Edward Island

The Dallas Stars are certainly in a state of flux lately, as the team struggles with a restrictive internal budget as they work to transition to Joe Nieuwendyk’s and Marc Crawford’s new system. With the team in he midst of a sale, it’s also unlikely that the team is able to use that cap space to upgrade the team over what they had on the ice last season.

So after two straight seasons of missing the playoffs, it’s unlikely the team will appear much different next season -- other than in net, of course.

The Stars are also fighting for relevancy in the Dallas area, with the Cowboys, Rangers and Mavericks all experiencing recent success. One thing the Stars have always had for the fans is accessibility, especially during training camp. That has helped to keep relations with the fans alive and well, despite the frustrations of recent years.

However, according to Mike Heika of the Dallas Morning News and The Guardian, the Stars are looking at moving at least parts of their training camp to Prince Edward Island:

When contacted on Friday morning, Long said he wasn’t in a position to confirm anything yet.

“We hope to have some closure to this situation in another two or three weeks,’ Long said. The City of Charlottetown made a formal proposal to the Stars organization earlier this year to have the NHL organization move part of its training camp to the Island capital.

Brad Gardner of Defending Big D is
feeling a bit greedy, and isn’t exactly happy with the news:

This move will take what has been a celebration of the return of hockey amongst the faithful in Dallas away from the fans, and of course, Defending Big D. In a town where hockey is a fourth rate sport, it’s profile will be reduced even further by having the athletes 2,362 miles away (Thanks, Google.)

Needless to say, if this comes to pass it is disappointing to us here, who can’t exactly afford to get on a plane to Prince Edward Island for a week. It is not uncommon to have training camps away from home, of course. Baseball teams and football teams do it most commonly and the Stars used to go to Colorado for a number of years.

Still, he notes that perhaps it will be good for the team to get away for camp after a number of seasons of very slow starts. It’s also important to note that the entire camp won’t be on PEI; training camp begins on September 17th and the first preseason game is on September 21st in Dallas. So perhaps the Stars will open camp for the first few days up in Canada before moving back to Dallas.

It’s also a good way to get some great PR up in Canada, especially considering that Brad Richards and Steve Ott are both PEI natives. So while the Stars fans will be angry that portions of camp will be away from Dallas, it’s not as bad as it initially sounds.