Dallas, TX
Dallas Stars free agency tracker: Who’s staying, who’s going and who’s joining the team
NHL free agency: a period where every hockey fan has to regularly ask themselves, “Who’s on my team again?”
Don’t fret. We’re here to help keep track of who the Dallas Stars are signing, re-signing and letting walk in free agency this offseason.
This will be updated as new information becomes available.
Who have the Stars signed?
D Matt Dumba
The 30-year-old signed a two-year deal worth $3.75 million value annually. Dumba spent last season with the Tampa Bay Lightning after being dealt by Arizona at the trade deadline.
D Ilya Lyubushkin
Lyubushkin, who played for the Maple Leafs in parts of two of the past three seasons, agreed to a three-year, $3.25 million AAV deal with Dallas.
D Brendan Smith
Smith’s one-year contract is worth $1 million. The 35-year-old most recently played for New Jersey and has played both defenseman and forward in his career.
G Casey DeSmith
DeSmith signed a three-year deal through 2026-27 worth $1 million annually, and he figures to be the new backup to Jake Oettinger.
D Kyle Capobianco
The former Manitoba Moose and the AHL’s top scoring defenseman last season was signed to a two-year deal in which the first year is a two-way contract and the second year is a one-way worth $775,000.
F Kole Lind
Lind, who was signed to a one-year, two-way contract, helped the AHL’s Coachella Valley Firebirds, the affiliate of the Seattle Kraken, to back-to-back Calder Cup finals.
F Cameron Hughes
Hughes, who also played for the Firebirds, received a one-year, two-way contract from the Stars after a 25-goal season in Coachella Valley.
Who have the Stars re-signed?
F Sam Steel
Restricted free agent forward Sam Steel did not receive a qualifying offer on Sunday, making him an unrestricted free agent Monday at 11 a.m. But just 90 minutes later, the Stars announced they re-signed the fourth-line forward to a one-year contract for the 2024-25 season. The deal is worth $1.2 million.
D Nils Lundkvist
The Stars re-signed defenseman Nils Lundkvist to a one-year, $1.25 million deal. The 23-year-old has spent the last two seasons with Dallas after a blockbuster trade ahead of the 2022-23 season, in which the Stars sacrificed a 2023 first-round draft pick to the New York Rangers. In 119 regular-season games in Dallas, Lundkvist hasn’t lived up to expectations, scoring just 35 points despite being known for his offensive ability.
F Matt Duchene
The Stars announced they re-signed Duchene to a one-year, $3 million deal, the same deal he signed to join Dallas’ roster last season. The unrestricted free agent will return to Dallas in the fall for his second year.
D Alexander Petrovic
The Stars signed defenseman Alexander Petrovic to a two-year, two-way contract last Friday. The 32-year-old appeared in one regular-season game and seven playoff games for the Stars last season. Petrovic spent most of last season with the Texas Stars, where he had 22 points in 70 games.
F Oskar Back
Drafted with Dallas’ third-round pick in 2018, Back scored 36 points, seven goals and 29 assists, in 59 regular-season games in Cedar Park, with an additional five points in seven Calder Cup games. His new two-way contract is worth $775,000, and he will be an unrestricted free agent in 2025.
F Matej Blumel
Blumel signed a two-way deal for the 2024-25 season. In his second AHL season, the 24-year-old led Texas in goals (31) and ranked second in points (62) in 72 regular-season games.
F Emilio Pettersen
Pettersen, who also signed a two-way deal for next season, split the 2023-24 AHL season between the Calgary Wranglers and the Texas Stars. The 24-year-old posted 30 points (7 goals, 23 assists) in 54 games with Calgary before he was acquired by Dallas via trade on March 7.
Who’s leaving?
D Chris Tanev
Just 124 days after the Stars traded for the 34-year-old right-handed defenseman, the Toronto Maple Leafs signed him to a six-year deal with an average annual value of $4.5 million.
The Stars traded the rights to Tanev to Toronto on Saturday during the second day of the NHL draft after it became apparent that Jim Nill and his staff would not be able to re-sign him.
F Craig Smith
The Blackhawks announced Monday afternoon they had signed the former Dallas Stars forward to a one-year, $1 million deal when free agency opened. Smith was acquired by Dallas in free agency last year after splitting the 2022-23 season between Boston and Washington. He appeared in 75 regular season games and recorded 20 points on Dallas’ fourth line.
D Jani Hakanpaa
Hakanpää reportedly signed a two-year, $3 million contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs, ending his three-year stint in Dallas after a difficult season.
The Finnish defenseman played the fewest games since becoming a mainstay of the Stars’ lineup in the 2021-22 season — appearing in just 64 in the regular season and none in the playoffs after dealing with injury.
G Scott Wedgewood
The 31-year-old backup goaltender agreed to a two-year, $1.5 million AAV deal with the Nashville Predators. Despite being a good fit, the Stars and Wedgewood’s team couldn’t agree to new contract ahead of his previous one expiring Monday. He sought a raise that Dallas wouldn’t deliver on.
F Ty Dellandrea
The Stars traded forward Ty Dellandrea to the Sharks in exchange for a fourth-round pick in the 2025 NHL draft, though Dellandrea, who was set to become a free agent, is not yet under contract for the 2024-25 season.
Who’s left to sign?
D Thomas Harley
The Stars extended a qualifying offer to restricted free agent defenseman Thomas Harley Sunday. By doing so, Dallas retains negotiating rights for the young blue-liner.
Harley was due for the biggest raise among Dallas’ RFAs and the most likely candidate for an offer sheet. The 22-year-old defenseman recorded 47 points (15 goals and 32 assists) as a top-pairing defenseman for Dallas last year despite making an average annual salary of $7.6 million less than his partner Miro Heiskanen. His negotiation could also be the most complicated.
F Max Ellis
The Stars received Ellis, who was not under contract for 2024-25 but over whom Dallas retained negotiating rights, from the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for Chris Tanev’s negotiating rights. The 5-foot-9, 166-pound forward did not receive a qualifying offer by Sunday, making him a free agent. The 24-year-old notched 14 points in 36 regular-season games with the AHL’s Toronto Marlies last season.
Find more Stars coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.
Dallas police are searching for a shooting suspect after two people were shot early Saturday morning.
The shooting incident happened around 6:30 a.m. when Dallas officers responded to a shooting call in the 7600 block of South Central Expressway, where two people had been shot.
Officials said one victim was taken to the hospital in critical condition by Dallas Fire-Rescue. The other was transported by private vehicle in stable condition.
No arrests have been made as of Saturday afternoon, according to Dallas Police.
The shooting investigation is ongoing and this story will be updated as we learn more.
UPDATE 6-26-2026: Gracie has been found about four miles south of the Cedar Hollow Ranch, according to a Facebook update from Real County Animal Rescue. Ranch manager Vic Jones has assembled a team to safely bring the wandering giraffe home.
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A giraffe named Gracie is missing in Texas, and the search for her has become a tall order.
Gracie, who is about 3 years old, has been missing for nearly two weeks after escaping her enclosure at Cedar Hollow Ranch in the Texas Hill Country, said Vic Jones, who owns the remote property about 100 miles west of San Antonio. He said Wednesday, June 24 that Gracie had wandered into a part of the privately owned preserve that other giraffes previously avoided.
Jones said he has sent up helicopters to look for Gracie, a few sightings have trickled in, and a $5,000 reward is on the table.
But the giraffe, which stands roughly the height of a tree, hasn’t turned up.
“She wound up going up and feeding in an area on the hillside and the rocky ledges that none of the other giraffes had ever gone on before,” Jones said. “And when she came down off of there, she came down on the wrong side of the gate.”
The ranch is in rural Real County, where its roughly 2,700 residents were put on alert to be on the lookout for a missing giraffe. Jones said the search area is extremely remote, and the likelihood of Gracie encountering any humans is low.
“People are not in danger of her because she’s not around people,” Jones said. ‘She’s out in very, very rough, heavily wooded lands.”
The Texas Hill Country has one of the largest concentrations of exotic captive animals in the country. Real County Sheriff Nathan Johnson said the mild climate and rugged terrain seems to serve as a good stand-in for most of the animals’ native African environments.
He rattled off a list of animals that have gone missing over the years, especially after floods, but said this was his first giraffe.
“I’ve had wildebeests, I’ve had water buffalo, I’ve had monkeys, I’ve had zebras, all go missing,” Johnson said. “Sometimes we recover them, and sometimes we don’t.”
While the middle of Texas is not a giraffe’s native environment, Jones said Gracie should be able to find plenty of leaves and other vegetation to eat. He said other animals were not likely to bother her.
Jones said he initially had helicopters searching an area of about 7,500 acres (3,000 hectares) with no luck. A few days later, there was a report that Gracie was spotted to the south.
But by the time they could search the area, Jones said, she was already gone.
“We’re always two three days late for where the information is coming from, so that makes it tough,” Jones said.
Egypt takes on the Socceroos on Friday, July 3. See ticket prices for Dallas
Editor’s note: See all updated scenarios for the 2026 World Cup tournament bracket
The most volatile group has come to a close at the 2026 World Cup.
Egypt and Iran played to a 1-1 draw late on Friday night, which allowed Belgium to rise up from third place all the way to the top spot in the group while Egypt took second. Iran will have to wait and see if their third place finish is good enough to qualify for the knockout round.
As the Group G runner up, Egypt will take on Australia in the round of 32.
SHOP: Egypt vs. Australia 2026 World Cup tickets
Australia finished as the second-place team in Group D, sitting on four points. Egypt and Australia will face off in Dallas on Friday, July 3, the final match of the round of 32.
Here is everything you need to know in order to buy Egypt vs. Australia World Cup tickets.
Shop Egypt vs. Australia tickets
Egypt vs. Australia round of 32 World Cup tickets
As of publication, the cheapest ticket to attend the Egypt vs. Australia costs $834. Lower-level seats for the round of 32 match at AT&T Stadium in Dallas start at $1,083.
Egypt World Cup next opponent
Egypt will take on Australia in the round of 32. Australia finished as the runner up in Group D, finishing the group stage with one win, one draw and one loss.
Shop Egypt vs. Australia tickets
Egypt World Cup schedule
- June 15 – Egypt vs. Belgium at Lumen Field in Seattle – DRAW 1-1
- June 21 – Egypt vs. New Zealand at BC Place Stadium in Vancouver – WIN 3-1
- June 26 – Egypt vs. Iran at Lumen Field in Seattle – DRAW 1-1
- Friday, July 3 – Australia vs. Group G runner up at AT&T Stadium in Dallas (round of 32) – Shop tickets
World Cup Group G Standings
| TEAM | POINTS | RECORD |
| Belgium | 5 | 1-2-0 |
| Egypt | 5 | 1-2-0 |
| Iran | 3 | 0-3-0 |
| New Zealand | 1 | 0-1-2 |
Shop Egypt vs. Australia World Cup tickets
Australia World Cup schedule
- Australia vs. Turkey – WIN 2-0
- Australia vs. United States – LOSS 2-0
- Australia vs. Paraguay – DRAW 1-1
- Friday, July 3 – Australia vs. Group G runner up at AT&T Stadium in Dallas (round of 32) – Shop tickets
World Cup Group D Standings
Shop Egypt vs. Australia tickets
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