The Dallas Stars have given us some more NHL News, and kept two pieces of their defensive core on the team before the start of training camp.
Esa Lindell was signed to a five-year contract extension worth a total value of $26.25 million. His $5.25 million cap hit is down from the six-year, $34.8 million extension with a $5.8 million cap hit he signed in 2019. His extension carries a no-trade clause from the 2026 season to the 2028 campaign, and a 20-team no-trade list for the final two years of the deal. He will earn $4 million in base salary for every year except the 2028 season, where his base salary is $4.25 million. However, he will receive signing bonuses of $2.5 million in 2026 and 2027, and $1 million in 2028.
The salary cap situation made it hard for the Stars to crack a long-term deal with Thomas Harley, so they opted for a bridge deal with the 23-year-old: A two-year, $8 million contract with a $4 million cap hit, which he will earn a $3.5 million salary in the first year and a $4.5 million salary in the second, with no signing bonuses. The latter number will be his qualifying offer by 2026, and he will be arbitration-eligible that summer.
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NHL News Stars Keep Their Top Defensive Defenseman
While Lindell stands at 6′ 3″ and 220 lbs., he’s not the physical type of stay-at-home defenseman. He’s one of the more gentlemanly players in the league, having finished inside the top 25 in Lady Byng Trophy voting in the last three seasons. His defensive game is more of strong skating to maintain his positioning while facing the rush or back-checking. He was heavily utilized in defensive situations last season at even strength, logging 62.5% of his in-zone starts in his own end, and has still controlled 53.7% of the expected goals when he’s on the ice.
Lindell isn’t the best at shot attempt shares, but he shows that Corsi For percentage is rarely the end-all-be-all for how well a player is good at possession numbers. He does produce low-danger chances offensively, but he doesn’t get a lot of high-danger chances on his own end of the ice.
That doesn’t mean that he is not a liability offensively, as he recorded at least 20 points in each of his last three seasons. Last year, he totaled five goals and 26 points in 82 games. He’s also very durable, as he has played every regular season game in the last two years.
His ice time has slimmed down to more conservative levels since Peter DeBoer became the head coach of the team. After a half-decade where he consistently played more than 22 minutes per game, he has averaged 20:12 of ice time in the two years under DeBoer. He’s mostly playing second-pairing minutes now, and he will once again be seeing a lot of time on the second pair, though there will be competition for who will be his defensive partner between free agent signings Matt Dumba and Ilya Lyubushkin.
NHL News Harley Gets the Opportunity to Build Off Stellar 2024
While Harley has just one full NHL season under his belt, it was a very strong season where he hit 15 goals and 32 assists for 47 points in 79 games while averaging over 21 minutes per game. While he went ice cold in the playoffs (just four assists in 19 games), he still logged heavy minutes, averaging almost 24 per game, second to workhorse Miro Heiskanen. However, his 15 goals were tied for 8th-most among NHL blueliners in 2024.
His track record in the NHL is limited compared to other seasoned top-pairing blueliners, and his performance last season could have realistically commanded a cap hit of over $7 million when speaking of a max contract. But if he were to receive such, general manager Jim Nill would need to make cost-cutting moves, something that he doesn’t have the luxury of doing right now. It is for this same reason that he offered a second straight one-year, $3 million contract to Matt Duchene, which he agreed to.
With everyone present for the preseason and training camp, the Stars now have the full team under contract this season. They now have just $694,000 in cap space, though this is with a full 23-man roster. If they are willing to carry fewer than the maximum amount of players and shuffle any waiver-exempt players, they should get themselves in a spot where they can get as many in-season cap room as possible, barring any injuries.
Check out our other NHL content here.
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