NHL GM confirms his RFA has demanded a trade.

It seems this relationship may have completely fallen apart. 

We have a rather big trade rumor to announce and frankly this is one that I am a little hesitant to call a rumor given that the source of the news appears to come directly from a National Hockey League general manager himself. According to a report from Matthew DeFranks of the Dallas Morning News restricted free agent defenseman Julius Honka, currently of the Dallas Stars, has demanded a trade from the Stars organization. It is unclear at this time exactly when the trade demand was made, however it is believed that Dallas Stars general manager Jim Nill has been actively trying to trade Honka over the course of the summer, something that might indicate the trade demand was made during, or just after, the end of the 2018 - 2019 NHL season.

"Did we handle him right at times? Yes or no, we don’t know," said Stars general manager Jim Nill as per DeFranks. "And it’s on the player, too. You get an opportunity, you’ve got to grab it. Sometimes, things don’t work out. There’s different personalities, but that’s sports and that’s life."

Honka of course has a very good pedigree but has never truly managed to translate his skills to the NHL level in an effective manner. Selected in the first round (14th overall) of the 2014 NHL Entry Draft by the Dallas Stars Honka has never become an NHL regular for the Stars and was in fact made a healthy scratch for the final 30+ games of the regular season by  Stars head coach Jim Montgomery this past season, In fact since being drafted in 2014 Honka has only appeared in a combined total of 87 NHL games for the Stars, recording 2 goals and 11 assists for a total of 13 points over that stretch.

Honka's agent, Todd Diamond, was quick to place the blame for his client's struggles at the feet of the Dallas Stars coaching staff. Although Diamond did try to pull back on his comments a little, both his comments and the trade demand make it clear that the Honka camp feel coaching has been a major issue. 

"I think some of the coaches in the past maybe didn’t understand or relate to him or put the time in," said Diamond" "Some did, but I think Julius is a case of someone with extraordinary skill who needed a little more work on some elements of the game. "

"Sometimes you get that and sometimes you don’t. All coaches are different. I don’t want to put the blame completely on them for it not having worked out, but it is what it is. It’s time to move on."

This may have been the worst possible offseason for Honka and his camp to have made this trade demand however, as it appears the Stars may have their hands tied a little. With so many restricted free agents unsigned right now, including Honka himself, teams are hesitant to make any deals that could potentially adversely impact their salary cap following some of those restricted free agents being signed. Stars GM Jim Nill confirmed as much.

"Teams that I’ve talked to might have interest but until they know what they can do with their RFAs, they can’t make any moves. They’re capped out. We’ll play this out, see where it goes."

We will see where this one leads down the line.