Today appears to be a big news day for the Dallas Stars — reports have come in that the Stars have locked up one of their core players on an expiring deal, whose agent is Andy Scott, to a long term extension.
No no no, I’m don’t mean Mikko Rantanen, who the Stars acquired today at the deadline. I’m talking about Wyatt Johnston, who is set to ink a 5 year, $8.4M cap hit. While not the max eight year term, it is long enough to not really be considered a “bridge deal” — excluding Rantanen, only Roope Hintz (exp. 2031) and Jake Oettinger (exp. 2033) are under contract for longer than Johnston (exp. 2030). He also joins Esa Lindell (exp. 2030) and Miro Heiskanen (exp. 2029) as players locked in beyond 2027, although Jason Robertson and Thomas Harley (both exp. 2026) will no doubt eventually join them.
The timing of the extension shouldn’t really be surprising — as indirectly mentioned above, Rantanen and Johnston share the same agent, and the Stars would not have been willing to sign such a hefty long term extension with Rantanen without having a solid idea of what some they’re upcoming RFAs would cost them. Johnston, who is in the final year of his ELC, was naturally set to have the biggest hike in cap hit, and thus it was prudent to get that squared away before pulling the trigger on the Rantanen trade (or right after).
Johnston is far from the only Stars player who needs to be extended, but it is unlikely any new deals are inked before the offseason. For the RFAs, Mavrik Bourque will likely fetch a smaller bridge deal that isn’t pressing, and the Stars already decided to not qualify Nils Lundkvist last year before bringing him back anyways. As for the several UFAs, headlined by Jamie Benn and Matt Duchene, odds are the Stars’ success (or lack there of) in the postseason will largely determine what moves they decide to make. After all, players might be willing to more willing to chase the bag in Free Agency if the Stars were to win the Stanley Cup this year.
But for now, the Stars (and their fans) now have a clearer idea of what their cap situation looks like for the foreseeable future. And again: the deadline has still not passed.