{"id":469840,"date":"2025-07-01T17:39:26","date_gmt":"2025-07-01T21:39:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=469840"},"modified":"2025-07-01T17:39:26","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T21:39:26","slug":"dallas-stars-playoff-hero-signs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/07\/01\/dallas-stars-playoff-hero-signs\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas Stars Playoff Hero Signs with Anaheim Ducks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Veteran forward and Dallas Stars second-round playoff hero <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/g\/granlmi01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-07-01_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mikael Granlund<\/a> is leaving for the Anaheim Ducks. The 33-year-old is signing a three-year contract worth $21 million, or $7 million AAV after spending last season between the San Jose Sharks and the Stars.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">NEWS: We have signed forward Mikael Granlund to a three-year contract! <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/FlyTogether?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#FlyTogether<\/a> <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/47g3zGkQ3W\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/47g3zGkQ3W<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Anaheim Ducks (@AnaheimDucks) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AnaheimDucks\/status\/1940144807688773939?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 1, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Mikael Granlund Signs with Anaheim Ducks<\/h2>\n<p>Granlund is a capable veteran player, and his efforts after being acquired by the Stars showed just how valuable a contributor he can be. After being traded, Granlund had 21 points in 31 regular-season games for Dallas. Although it took him a few games to put one in the net, his two-way game and ability to do the little things were evident from the start, and he seemed to have a hand in everything that went right for the Stars.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s the way he needs to be viewed across the league. He&#8217;s a two-way centre who can make many under-the-radar plays and do whatever is asked of him. He hasn&#8217;t been a prolific goal-scorer, and that&#8217;s not what you need from him. However, he can show up when needed. During Dallas&#8217; playoff run, Granlund had 10 points in 18 games. That&#8217;s not going to jump off the page, but his Game 4 hat trick in the second round against the Winnipeg Jets was the only thing going for Dallas&#8217; offence that night and gave the Stars a 3-1 series advantage.<\/p>\n<h3>What It Means<\/h3>\n<p>Granlund is a veteran centre who still has something left in the tank. He will provide a veteran presence to a young Ducks team that <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/06\/12\/report-pacific-division-team-trades-for-chris-kreider\/\" target=\"_self\">added Chris Kreider<\/a> earlier in the off-season. After years of being on the outside looking in come playoff time, it&#8217;s clear that the Ducks are going for it this year. Granlund will help young centres <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/c\/carlsle01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-07-01_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Leo Carlsson<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/m\/mctavma01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-07-01_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mason McTavish<\/a> in their development, as the Ducks look strong down the middle for years to come.<\/p>\n<p><em>Main Photo: Perry Nelson- Imagn Images<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Veteran forward and Dallas Stars second-round playoff hero Mikael Granlund is leaving for the Anaheim Ducks. The 33-year-old is signing a three-year contract worth $21 million, or $7 million AAV after spending last season between the San Jose Sharks and the Stars. NEWS: We have signed forward Mikael Granlund to a three-year contract! #FlyTogether https:\/\/t.co\/47g3zGkQ3W [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5167,"featured_media":471886,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4548,20,4547,34],"tags":[1157,662],"class_list":["post-469840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nhl","category-ducks","category-hockey","category-news","tag-mikael-granlund","tag-nhl-free-agency"],"modified_by":"Andrew Willis","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5167"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469840"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469840\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":471887,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469840\/revisions\/471887"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}