The Seattle Kraken signed 21-year-old center Matty Beniers to a lucrative contract extension this week — and the ramifications of the deal could prove to have a major impact on the Dallas Stars’ next contracts for 21-year-old center Wyatt Johnston and 21-year-old forward Logan Stankoven.
Beniers was drafted the same year (2021) as Johnston and Stankoven, with the former going second-overall to the Kraken, and Johnston going 23rd overall to the Stars. And while Beniers had a better rookie NHL season than Johnston — with Beniers posting 24 goals and 57 points and winning the Calder Trophy as the league's top rookie, while Johnston had 24 goals and 41 points — Johnston had a better sophomore season last year, generating 32 goals and 65 points to Benier’s 15 goals and 37 points.
As for Stankoven — who went 47th-overall to Dallas in 2021 — he’s under contract for two more years at a cap hit of $814,167. His NHL totals are more modest than Johnston’s (Stankoven had six goals and 14 points in 24 games of his rookie season last year), but Stankoven is a key cog in Dallas’ future as well.
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Benier’s contract extension with Seattle will pay him an average annual value of $7.14 million for the next seven years. Meanwhile, Johnston is entering the final year of his entry-level contract, earning $894,167 before becoming an RFA next summer. Stars GM Jim Nill will probably want Johnston’s signature on a long-term contract, but in the no-income-tax state of Texas, he might be able to sign Johnston to a five-or-six-year deal in the area of $5 million-$6-million per year.
Stankoven’s eventual extension might be slightly less lucrative than Johnston’s, and with key cogs including center Roope Hintz, Jason Robertson, Miro Heiskanen and Thomas Harley as part of the long-term picture in Dallas, Nill will have to save cap space wherever possible in signing both Johnston and Stankoven. They could get bridge deals dissimilar to Beniers, but they could get long-term deals instead.
Some of that money for Dallas’ young core will undoubtedly come from the soon-to-be-ending contracts of greybeard forwards Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin; Benn’s massive contract — that carries a cap hit of $9.5 million — will expire at the end of the 2024-25 campaign, while Seguin’s $9.85-million cap hit will expire in the summer of 2027. So there is some cap relief coming. But every dollar saved will help Nill keep the team together, and locking up Johnston to a team-and-player-friendly deal would be a bargain as he gets near his competitive peak.
To be sure, the Stars’ excellent draft and development team will need to continue to produce low-cost, high-end talent to help them out on the cap front, but Johnston and Stankoven in particular are tremendous finds for the organization. Beniers is a crucial component of the Kraken’s future, but Johnston and Stankoven have proven to be solid NHLers, and Nill’s job in the next couple years is to get both of them under team control for the foreseeable future.
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