Carson Babbini | May 17th, 2019
The Dallas Stars have locked up a big part of their young defensive core for the long haul as the team announced yesterday that they have signed defenseman Esa Lindell to a six-year contract extension. The new deal will be worth $34.8 million, paying Lindell $5.8 million per season. With this new deal, the Stars will avoid having Lindell hitting restricted free agency, which would have happened July 1st if not for this new deal.
Drafted by the Stars with the 74th overall pick in the third round of the 2012 NHL Draft, Lindell would play four games for the Stars in the 2015-16 season, but he would make his impact during the 2016-17 season when he played in 73 games, scoring six goals and twelve assists for a total of eighteen points. During the 2017-18 season, Lindell would continue to improve playing in 80 games that year, scoring seven goals and twenty assists totaling 27 points. This season, Lindell played in all 82 games, scoring eleven goals and 21 assists totaling 32 points, all of these established new career highs for Lindell. Lindell also scored four points during the Stars’ playoff run this year.
This year, Lindell was a huge part of the Stars defensive core. Now with this new deal, they make sure that Lindell will stay to grow alongside budding defensemen John Klingberg and rookie Miro Heiskanen, who had a tremendous rookie season. The Stars themselves as a team had a tremendous year upsetting the best team in the Western Conference in the Nashville Predators in six games before losing a tightly contested seven-game series with the St. Louis Blues. Up next on the docket for the Stars, it may be to resign their Trade Deadline acquisition Mats Zuccarello, who they acquired from the New York Rangers and missed time in Dallas after sustaining an upper-body injury during the first period of his first game with the Stars. For now though for the Stars, they have one of their young talents locked in for the long haul.
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