Pending UFA Matt Duchene has expressed his desire to remain with Dallas as free agency looms in a few weeks time.
Speaking to a local sports radio station, Duchene told the hosts “For me, there’s definitely a one-two-three of importance in [free agency]. … But money is definitely not the No. 1 bucket and never has been for me. And especially at this point in my career. I’ve been very blessed to have had some great contracts, and I have some good people working with that stuff.”
“But you know, you want to fill each of those buckets and Dallas, absolutely, this year filled that for me. And we will be for sure talking and trying to make something happen. So I’m looking forward to that. I’m hoping we can figure it out quickly. And, you know, I can’t say enough good things about this organization.”
After being bought out by the Nashville Predators, Duchene signed with Dallas on a 1 year, $3M contract. Across 80 games with the Stars the 33 year old recorded 65 points (25G, 40A) while adding some much secondary scoring to the Stars lineup.
After falling to the Edmonton Oilers in the Western Conference Finals, Dallas now faces an imposing offseason which they only have 13 players under contract for 2024-25. Alongside Duchene are impending free agents Craig Smith, Jani Hakanpaa, Derrick Pouliot, Chris Tanev and Scott Wedgewood.
Meanwhile, Ty Dellandrea, Sam Steel, Thomas Harley and Nils Lundkvist are also scheduled to become restricted free agents. With decisions to be made on 10 players, Stars GM Jim Nill will have his work cut out for him this summer.
Photo: Benjamin Reed. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.