The Swedish paper Aftonbladet reports veteran NHL defenseman Mattias Norstrom has decided to retire effective immediately.

Norstrom began his NHL career with the NY Rangers in 1993-94 but would play the bulk of his fourteen NHL seasons with the Los Angeles Kings, where he would eventually become team captain and earned a reputation as one of the top defensive blueliners in the game.

He took over the captaincy of the Kings in 2001 after Rob Blake was traded to Colorado, a role he would hold until he was dealt to the Dallas Stars at the February 2007 trade deadline.

The 35-year-old Norstrom’s physical style began to take its toll on him this season, when he appeared in 66 games with the Stars, the first time he played less than 73 games in a season since the 1995-96 season, when he played 36 split between the Rangers and Kings.

His final playoff run however was a memorable one, appearing in all 18 of the Stars games and notching five points, including two goals, accounting for all but two of his career 7 playoff points.

It was thought that his strong performance in this spring’s playoffs might entice him back for another season with the Stars, who’ll now have to find a replacement for Norstrom either within their organization or via trade or free agency.

On Tuesday the Dallas Stars fired Doug Armstrong as their general manager, hiring Les Jackson and former NHL star Brett Hull as “co-general managers” for the remainder of this season.

Eyebrows were raised over this decision as the Stars’ record was 7-7-2 at the time of Armstrong’s firing, but the reason had less to do with the record and more to do with some of the stumbling performances in those losses.

Sealing Armstrong’s fate was the Stars blowing a 4-0 lead over the LA Kings on Saturday, falling 6-5 in overtime.

Armstrong caught considerable flak from Dallas fans and pundits for his inability to improve the Stars roster this summer, as did owner Tom Hicks for his perceived unwillingness to spend more on the team’s roster, although their current payroll of $48.3 million disproves that notion.

The sin here is Armstrong failed to build on the strong foundation left by his predecessor Bob Gainey.

Most of the Stars top players – Mike Modano, Jere Lehtinen, Sergei Zubov, Mattias Norstrom, Phillipe Boucher – are in the early-to-late thirties and appear in various stages of decline this season.

Except for Brendan Morrow and Mike Ribeiro there’s no younger players either capable of stepping up now or waiting in the wings.

As one pundit observed, the Stars have in recent years resembled the New York Islanders of the mid-to-late 1980s, in that they’re still a good team but one fading rapidly as management fails to bring in or develop young talent to replace aging stars.

An air of uncertainty may be hovering over the Stars right now but it’s too early to predict imminent doom because of their change of management.

It’ll be interesting to see what Hull and Jackson do, although it’s a safe bet that rival NHL GMs will be contacting these management novices looking to fleece them.

That’s not to suggest Hull and Jackson will fall prey to their experienced rivals. While some observers are either puzzled by or mocking their hiring, it must be remembered that the New York Islanders also made a puzzling management hire last year in Garth Snow and he’s proven thus far to be more than capable in the role.

If Jackson and the outspoken Hull prove as capable as Snow the Stars could be in good hands.

I suspect Hull and Jackson will take some time to evaluate the club’s roster, as well as determine the course owner Hicks wants to take, before making any plans regarding roster change.

What’ll be more interesting is how the players respond to this change, and whether it spurs them into better performances. If nothing changes, the next person fired could be head coach Dave Tippet, or one of the current members of the roster could be changing addresses.

TSN reports the Los Angeles Kings have trade team captain Mattias Norstrom to the Dallas Stars.

I'm still awaiting full details of the return on this. My apologies for not updating this earlier but the Ryan Smyth trade hit just after this broke.

This is a significant move by the Stars to add more defensive depth and leadership to their blueline corps. Norstrom is respected as one of the league's better defensive blueliners who plays a clean physical game.

Players like Nostrom are coveted by playoff bound clubs so give full marks to Stars GM Doug Armstrong for pulling this off.

As for the Kings, the rebuilding continues under GM Dean Lombardi, who clears over $4 million in cap space for next season by moving Norstrom.

**UPDATE** The Dallas Morning News reports the following: " Johan Fransson, Jaroslav Modry and
a first, second and third to LA for a Norstrom, a key propect and a third and fourth."