One of the most certain transactions of the NHL offseason looks to be growing less likely by the day as the Dallas Stars cannot find a trade partner for 40-year-old defenseman Sergei Gonchar.

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After a subpar season, it was all but certain that the Stars would actively look to trade Gonchar, but according to Dallas Morning-News’ Mike Heika the move has been more difficult than the franchise imagined.

“I was almost 100 percent sure that [Stars GM] Jim Nill would find a way to move Sergei Gonchar before the summer was over, but it looks like that could be more difficult than I imagined.

Even with the team willing to eat half of his $5 million salary (the maximum allowed under the new CBA), the Stars could not find a trade partner for the 40-year-old defenseman.”

Gonchar was the first, and least successful, of Stars’ general manager Jim Nill’s transactions and now he is looking to right past mistakes. Gonchar only registered 22 points in 76 games last year after putting up 27 points in a lockout-shortended 45 games. He also averaged a team defenseman low 17:37 TOI per game and went pointless with a minus-3 rating in the playoffs.

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[NBC Sports]

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