June 24: The Stars made Blümel’s signing official in an announcement Monday. They also confirmed the re-signing of Norwegian forward Emilio Pettersen, which PuckPedia had reported last week.
June 21: The Stars have been active in recent days with a trade and a re-signing and have now taken care of another of their pending restricted free agents. CapFriendly reports (Twitter link) that they’ve re-signed winger Matej Blumel to a one-year, two-way deal that pays $775K in the NHL and $175K in the minors. In doing so, he took nearly $100K less than his qualifying offer for his NHL salary but received an additional $95K guarantee for his AHL salary.
The 24-year-old was originally drafted by Edmonton back in 2019 but didn’t sign with them by the deadline in 2021. One year later, Dallas inked him to an entry-level contract, one that officially expires next week before this new deal kicks in.
Blumel spent 2023-24 exclusively in the minors, playing with AHL Texas. He was one of their top scorers, tallying 31 goals and 31 assists in 72 regular season games while adding nine points in seven postseason appearances. That helped earn him a recall last month after Texas was eliminated to serve as a Black Ace for Dallas for the rest of their postseason.
Blumel does have six career NHL games under his belt, all coming from his rookie year in 2022-23 where he had a goal while logging a little under ten minutes a night. He is still exempt from waivers for another season and could find himself on the outside looking in once again. That said, if Blumel scores at a similar pace next season, he should be one of their first recalls when injuries strike.