Stars sign former first-round pick to four-year extension

Duchene could have tested the market as one of the top unrestricted free-agent centers available, but he’ll instead opt to stay in a Dallas market where he’s excelled as a key top-six contributor over the past two years. 

In doing so, he takes a significant discount on his market value, at least on a per-year basis. A four-year offer at a much higher price may not have been out there for the 34-year-old, but AFP Analytics projected a three-year deal for Duchene to fall in the $7M range per season if he hit the open market.

The 2009 No. 3 overall pick is coming off a spectacular 2024-25 campaign. While the Stars scored the third-most goals in the league, their offense was largely generated by committee. Duchene was the only Dallas player who played at least 25 games who hit the point-per-game mark, leading it in scoring with a 30-52–82 line while playing in all 82 games. Averaging over 17 minutes per game, it was the second time Duchene had hit 80 points in his 16-year NHL career and the fourth time he had hit 30 goals.

Duchene initially arrived in Texas on a one-year, $3M contract for 2023-24 following a surprise buyout by the Predators with three years left on his contract. He posted 25 goals and 65 points in 80 games last year before taking a repeat of that deal to stay with the Stars last summer. It was a significant discount then, and he takes another significant discount now, locking in some highly desired security through the rest of his mid-30s as well.

The Stars need any help they can get to ice a cap-compliant roster for 2025-26. Duchene’s steep discount certainly helps, but they still find themselves in a position to clear multiple salaries to even ice a full roster, let alone re-sign any other pending UFAs. 

Dallas now has just $455K in cap space with a roster of only 17 players, per PuckPedia. It needs to open at least $1.9M cap space at an absolute minimum via trades to be able to sign three league-minimum players for a bare-bones 20-man roster. 

In reality, it’ll move at least two of Mason Marchment ($4.5M), Mathew Dumba ($3.75M) and Ilya Lyubushkin ($3.25M) to open up far more than that to give it some in-season flexibility while not taking a catastrophic hit to its forward depth. Jamie Benn, Evgenii Dadonov and Mikael Granlund remain as pending UFAs up front.

For Duchene, he’ll still be getting compensated more than his contract with Dallas indicates. The expiry of his new deal following the 2028-29 season lines up with when his buyout paychecks from the Predators will end. He’s still set to receive $6.56M from Nashville in 2025-26 and then $1.56M annually through 2028-29.