Whether by design or by lack of control, the NHL couldn’t stop the vast majority of players selected by the Las Vegas Golden Knights from leaking out throughout the day on Wednesday, as players and their agents were informed they would be moving to the desert.
So Dallas Stars fans have known since about lunchtime that Cody Eakin would be heading West to play for the NHL’s 31st franchise in its inaugural season. That became official during the NHL’s awards show, when Eakin was the sixth player selected by the Golden Knights in the expansion draft.
(He was supposed to be the seventh, but the Golden Knights brass got a little out of order and went off script, as is tradition with the NHL awards.)
Eakin, 26, was acquired from the Washington Capitals in the summer of 2012 along with a second-round pick for Mike Ribeiro. The second round pick, No. 54 overall, became Mike Winther, who was never offered an NHL contract.
But Eakin paid huge dividends for the Stars in a utility role, bouncing up and down the lineup and really excelling early in his career when paired with players like Ryan Garbutt and Antoine Roussel on a speedy checking line. His strengths were his puck pursuit, his speed and his deceptively quick release, which took many goalies off guard when he shot off the rush.
In later seasons, he bounced up and down the lineup, sometimes centering the top line and other times filling in at wing on lower lines. That versatility, and the fact that he’s cost controlled at $3.85 million per season for the next three years, is probably a big reason Vegas was so interested.
In total, Eakin played 349 regular season games for Dallas with 65 goals and 89 assists in an average of 16 minutes per game. He was only a positive possession player in 2012-13, but that was the only season he didn’t have difficult zone starts. He was also relatively productive in the playoffs, with three goals and 10 assists in 19 games, including the Stars first overtime winner since Brenden Morrow’s 2008 goal last May against the St. Louis Blues.
It’s a shame that 2016-17 will be his last season in Dallas, as that was his least productive season for a number of reasons, not the least of which was a preseason knee injury that cost him the first 20 or so games and seemed to hamper his speed for even longer.
Losing Eakin leaves the Stars with $52.54 million in cap commitment next season with 15 players signed, which includes a now three-headed goalie monster of Ben Bishop, Kari Lehtonen and Antti Niemi.
That gives them $22.46 million to play with for things like re-signing restricted free agents like Radek Faksa, Brett Ritchie and Esa Lindell as well as pick up a free agent or two. They could add even more money by buying out a goalie, which would cost $1.67 million for two seasons for Kari Lehtonen or $1.5 million for two seasons for Antti Niemi. Net savings would be $4.23 million this season for Lehtonen and $3 million this season for Niemi, though there would be an additional cost 2018-19 as well.