Dallas Stars Ink Cody Eakin To 2-Year Deal: Where’s Dillon?

The Dallas Stars officially signed F Cody Eakin to a two-year, $3.8 million deal earlier today.

Eakin will not play in tonight’s preseason matchup against the Florida Panthers, but could be ready to suit up for the Dallas Stars preseason finale tomorrow at home against the Tampa Bay Lightning, the only team the Stars have yet to beat in the preseason so far.

Eakin will receive $1.5 million in the upcoming 2014-2015 season, with his salary being raised to $2.3 million for the final year of his deal next season. His cap hit (AAV) will sit at $1.9 million.

After Eakin’s successful 35-point year where he officially played out an 82-game season for the first time in his career, Jim Nill felt it was necessary to keep him on the team and build along with his young talent. He has proven very successful over the past season when playing on a line with Antoine Roussel and Ryan Garbutt, and he will look to continue his achievements in the upcoming year. The line has a mix of physicality and puck skill that is hard to find anywhere else.

Cody Eakin played in the Dallas Stars’ system last year mainly as the second line center, and many thought he was not ready to take on the challenge again this year, which is why Jim Nill went out and picked up Jason Spezza on a trade that almost seemed just plain unfair in July. Eakin was set to be shifted down to the third line center spot but had not been able to negotiate a deal with the Dallas Stars organization yet, though many talks had occurred between both sides.

Eakin played out the last year of his entry-level deal last season and the Stars sent him a qualifying offer in June, retaining his negotiation rights and permanently dubbing him an RFA. The talks dragged on for a while until today a deal was finally reached. Eakin’s salary from last year will nearly be tripled this upcoming season and his cap hit will see even more than a tripling.

With the upcoming season only 10 days away and only two preseason matchups remaining for the Dallas Stars, many expected Travis Morin or Curtis McKenzie to fill the void for the season opener, two players who proved themselves extremely useful in training camp a week ago and in the AHL last season. Many Stars fans were expecting Morin to make the jump from the AHL to the NHL for the ’14-’15 season, but these hopes were all but diminished when Jim Nill not only held on to his number of forwards from last season, but expanded on it by signing Patrick Eaves.

With Eakin now re-signed and set to go for the Dallas Stars upcoming season that many are believing will contain a strong press for the Stanley Cup, the question turns into: Where is Brenden Dillon?

Dillon is stuck in the same situation as Cody Eakin currently was until about two hours ago. Dillon and Eakin share the same agent and he works out of Frisco, which can lead to easier meetings and negotiations. There was word from the Dallas Stars’ beat reporter Mike Heika on Twitter today that Dillon’s agent and the Dallas Stars staff talked for an extended amount of time today as well, but no common ground has been found yet. We will continue to monitor what happens over the next ten days. If Dillon goes unsigned by October 9th, a likely candidate to replace him will be one of the impressive rookies Jyrki Jokipakka or John Klingberg.

With time lingering and the upcoming season just days away, will Dillon be re-signed in time? A similar situation happened two seasons ago when Jamie Benn missed the season opener during the lockout year due to unsettled negotiations.

Comments and questions below, and as always, thanks for reading! Go Stars.

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