Dallas Extends Patrick Eaves

The Dallas Stars have re-signed 31-year-old forward Patrick Eaves to a one-year deal worth $1.15 million, according to The Dallas Morning News’ Mike Heika.

Eaves struggled with injuries all season, only finding his way into 47 games. However, he spent some good time on Dallas’ underrated top power play unit (underrated because while their percentage wasn’t top 10, they scored over 50 goals last year). Eaves was incredibly effective on the power play while playing with Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin, and Jason Spezza (plus either Trevor Daley or John Klingberg on point). But six of his 14 total goals on the year were power play goals, making his 5-on-5 contributions seem a little paltry compared to his raw totals.

Patrick Eaves Dallas Stars
Credit: Texas Stars Hockey
Overall, Eaves managed to add 13 assists to that goal total. That included six goals and five assists in the last 11 games of the season. It’s the best he’s done in both goals and assists since his sophomore campaign for the Ottawa Senators in 2006-07.

He had a 1.9 P/60 at even strength, while playing the most even strength minutes of his career and posting the best shooting percentage he’s had since his rookie season at 10% during 5-on-5 play. The season before he shot 2.2%.

Eaves carries injury risk because it wasn’t just last season where he struggled with injury, but last season was a great year and he earned a nice pay increase from the $650K he made last season.

Keep up with all the free agent signings with The Hockey Writers’ Deal Tracker.

RELATED: Niemi Contract Proves Stars’ Goaltending Investment

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