Stars’ Esa Lindell out against Bruins with lower-body injury

The Dallas Stars will be playing without one of their veteran defensemen when they take the ice against the Boston Bruins on Tuesday night.

Tuesday morning, Stars head coach Glen Gulutzan told reporters including NHL.com’s Robert Tiffin that Esa Lindell will be out for about a week with a lower-body injury that he sustained as a result of blocking a shot.

With Lindell out of the lineup, Kyle Capobianco will have the opportunity to draw in, as the Stars are expected to ice defensive pairings of Thomas Harley and Miro Heiskanen, Lian Bichsel and Nils Lundkvist as well as Capobianco and Tyler Myers.

Lindell is in the midst of his 13th season in the NHL, and in recent years, he has been a model of health and availability. The Finnish blueliner has skated in all 82 regular season games in three of the past four seasons, and in the one year he didn’t, he logged 80 appearances during the 2024-25 campaign.

The 32-year-old was held without a point in his eight games to open the new season, but he is coming off of a 32-point effort from last year that tied his career high in points. A Dallas lifer, Lindell is in the second season of a five-year contract that carries a salary cap hit of $5.25 million.

The Stars are off to start of 4-3-1 that has them in fifth place in what promises to be an extremely competitive Central Division race all the way into April. While the record through eight games is certainly a slight disappointment from their usual standards, Tuesday night marks the start of an opportunity for Dallas to get things on track.

The Bruins’ visit to American Airlines Center is the start of a six-game homestand for the Stars that will also include visits from the Winnipeg Jets, New York Islanders, New Jersey Devils, Montreal Canadiens and Columbus Blue Jackets.