Stars Re-Sign Lindell

The Dallas Stars are really moving and shaking ahead of the free agency period, the next big event this summer, as they have already bought out Antti Niemi (see below) and now they have re-signed pool worthy defender Esa Lindell.

It's been a good day for new names and faces that haven't been picked in the hockey pool yet, as Lindell was one of those blueliners that flew under the radar for the entire 2017 season, finishing the year with 6 goals and 18 points in 73 games, good enough for 90th at the position.

The young Finn is thought to be more of a puck-moving defenseman with a big shot and still needs to work on his overall defensive game (no surprise there!), but should still have a bit of value as an up-and-coming player in the scoring ranks.  If the Stars can help him out with some stay-at-home help, he is one of the kids that we should be looking out for, when it comes to points from the blueline.

The new deal is reported to be a 2-year contract, worth $4.4 million, which means there are some much higher expectations in the 2018 season for this 23-year old and you may want to bump up his projections, after he got a fairly full season last year.

Forwards	Cap	Defense	Cap	Goalies	Cap
Jamie Benn	9.500	John Klingberg	4.250	Kari Lehtonen	5.900
Jason Spezza	7.500	Dan Hamhuis	3.750	Ben Bishop	4.917
Tyler Seguin	5.750	Esa Lindell	2.200
Antoine Roussel	2.000	Julius Honka	0.863
Denis Gurianov	0.925	Greg Pateryn	0.850
Jason Dickinson	0.894	Dillon Heatherington	0.771
Devin Shore	0.870	Stephen Johns	0.725
Remi Elie	0.745	Andrew Bodnarchuk	0.725
Curtis McKenzie	0.700
MattIas Janmark	0.700
Adam Cracknell	0.675
Justin Dowling	0.650

With the Stars buying out Niemi tomorrow, something already reflected in the table above, I am showing the Stars with $17.6 million in cap space with this 22-man projected roster.  The Stars are going to be buyers when the free agency window opens, as they are looking exceptionally raw at the forward position below Antoine Roussel and they could really use some help beyond Julius Honka on the blueline, namely someone who can actually play defense.  With as much cap space as they are projected to have here, they should be able to do something with it.