Dallas Stars start free agency with a steal, sign goaltender Khudobin

With the NHL free agent market set to officially open today, the Dallas Stars are already making their move to fill a major need at goaltender.

It didn’t take long for the wolves of the NHL to come knocking once the hour struck midnight. July 1 is finally here and free agency could be over before it’s really even begun. While we still have no word on where New York Islanders superstar John Tavares will be headed, word is out that other top guys available are already being pulled from the tree.

Paul Stastny will be headed to the Vegas Golden Knights, James van Riemsdyk is returning to the Philadelphia Flyers and Ilya Kovalchuk is set to make his return as soon as he signs on the dotted line with the Los Angeles Kings.

Former St. Louis Blues backup netminder Carter Hutton is also off to the Buffalo Sabres.

That would leave Boston Bruins backup Anton Khudobin as the next best available choice in net, right? Nope. He’s reportedly gone as well to the Dallas Stars.

For Dallas, this is a big win on the first day of free agency. Kari Lehtonen has been here for the last nine seasons, mostly as a starter. This past year he was relegated to backup behind Ben Bishop where he thrived for the better part of the campaign. When it came time to replace Bishop for a long stretch due to injury though, not so much.

It was simply time to move on and the Stars are doing just that, not to mention at much better value.

Khudobin, who is estimated to sign for two years at $2.5 million a season, has bounced around a bit in nine years with the Minnesota Wild, Boston Bruins, Carolina Hurricanes and Anaheim Ducks before returning in 2016 to Boston.

He posted good numbers through 31 games, recording 16 wins with a 2.56 goals against average and .913 save percentage. The biggest question will be how he fares if Bishop goes down, which has been known to happen with a touch of frequency. For now, this is a steal for Dallas at the price, considering it was recently paying upwards of $4 million to $6 million per the last few seasons for backups Lehtonen and Antti Niemi.

It’s also smart to make this a short deal as the Stars wait for prospects like Jake Oettinger and Colton Point to develop and hopefully find larger roles within the organization sooner rather than later. Stay tuned to FanSided for more moves as they happen.

Next: Flyers set to take van Riemsdyk off the free agent market

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