Dallas Stars prospect Esa Lindell was officially sent to the Texas Stars today a few days after his season with Assat was ended during a best of three wildcard series. He becomes the third Dallas Stars prospect to be assigned to the Texas Stars in the past month.
Lindell finished top of defensive scoring in the Liiga, the youngest defenseman ever to do so. He will only play a few games for the Texas Stars before returning to Finland for the World Championship camp. Before it was officially announced this afternoon Mark Stepneski was tweeting about what Lindell’s rest of the season will look like:
Lindell expected to play 5 games with Texas and then return to Europe for Finland’s World Championship camp.
— Mark Stepneski (@StarsInsideEdge) March 19, 2015
Since the beginning of the Finnish season, Lindell had been talked about as one of the early favourites to represent Finland at the World Championship and has played in several international tournaments this year. His impressive season has only solidified the feeling that Lindell will feature on Finland’s blueline.
Here is the press release from the Dallas Stars:
Dallas Stars General Manager Jim Nill announced today that the club has assigned defenseman Esa Lindell from Assat of the Finnish Elite League to the Texas Stars, Dallas’ top development affiliate in the American Hockey League.
Lindell, 20, finished third on Assat with 35 points (14-21=35) in 57 games played. The 14 goals and 35 points were tied for the league lead amongst all defensemen. Also, he led the entire league averaging 24:56 of time on ice per game.
The 6-foot-3, 210-pound native of Vantaa, Finland was selected by Dallas in the third round (74th overall) in the 2012 NHL Draft.