The Stars reached contract agreements with two of their restricted free agents. The team announced that winger Joel Kiviranta signed a two-year, $2.1MM deal while defenseman Ben Gleason inked a one-year, two-way deal. PuckPedia reports (Twitter link) that Gleason will make $750K in the NHL and $95K in the minors.
It was a bit of a tough year for Kiviranta. He started the season on IR and after being activated, he was shuffled to and from the taxi squad on several occasions. The 25-year-old then missed more than a month due to a lower-body injury. In the end, he wound up playing in 26 games last season, notching six goals and five assists. He had just 11 career NHL regular season contests under his belt heading into the season but had gotten himself on the radar with five goals in 14 playoff contests in the bubble in 2020. Kiviranta was eligible for salary arbitration but instead will bypass that option and will now be eligible for unrestricted free agency two summers from now.
As for Gleason, he made four NHL appearances in his rookie professional season in 2018-19 but has exclusively played with AHL Texas since then. Last season, he had four goals and 13 assists in 37 minor league games and will now need to pass through waivers in order to return there in 2021-22.
Kiviranta was the last NHL regular on the Stars to need a new deal although they have a trio of minor leaguers that remain as restricted free agents. They now sit roughly $3MM above the cap ceiling per CapFriendly but with Ben Bishop appearing to be unable to play to start next season, they will be able to place him on LTIR and remain in cap compliance.