Dallas Stars sign Nils Lundkvist to one-year, $1.25 million contract
The Dallas Stars have signed defenseman Nils Lundkvist to a one-year, $1.25 million contract.
✍️ We have signed Nils Lundkvist to a 1-year, $1.25 Million contract.
Welcome back to #TexasHockey, Lundy!
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Nils Lundkvist was an unrestricted free agent after the Stars opted to not give Lundqvist a qualifying offer when his three-year entry-level contract with a $925,000 cap hit expired. However, the Stars still circled back and re-signed him to his new contract.
There are currently no details regarding any no-move/no-trade clauses or signing bonuses with this contract.
Lundkvist technically receives a raise of $200,000 on his cap hit for the year, although it’s actually $550,000 less than his AAV from his previous deal when you account for the performance bonuses that came with it. As far as cap hits go, it’s the highest of his career, and the first time he’ll make a seven-figure salary.
Lundkvist’s new deal accounts for 1.42% of the 2024-25 salary cap. It shares a cap hit with defensemen Mike Reilly, Zach Bogosian, Matt Benning and Daniil Miromanov.
Lundkvist’s playing time was a bit all over the place last season for the Stars, but he still managed to produce with 2 goals and 17 assists for 19 points in 59 games. That was a career-high in terms of points, improving on his previous best of 16 points that he achieved in 2022-23.
Lundkvist only 1 assist in 13 games, but it came in even more limited usage as the Stars were eliminated in the third round of the playoffs in six games by the Edmonton Oilers.
Lundkvist was the 28th overall pick for the New York Rangers in the 2018 NHL Draft, and spent three years in the Swedish Hockey League before finally making his NHL debut in the 2021-22 season. Due to a lack of opportunities to play in the Rangers lineup, Lundkvist requested a trade and was dealt to the Stars for a first round pick that became Theo Lindstein at the start of the 2022-23 season, and he’s since played the last two seasons in Dallas.
Smith is one of six signings that the Stars have made on the first day of free agency, as they’ve also re-signed Matt Duchene and added Matt Dumba, Casey DeSmith, Brendan Smith and Ilya Lyubushkin to their team. They have just over $4.6 million in projected salary cap space after the signings, with defenseman Thomas Harley being the lone restricted free agent on their roster.