Stars' Jamie Benn signs with Hamburg Freezers

With the NHL lockout now cutting in to the 2012-13 preseason, many players have begun to make plans for the event that a season will not come to fruition, including Jamie Benn of the Dallas Stars, who signed with the Hamburg Freezers of the DEL (Deutsche Eishockey Liga) on Tuesday.

"We are pleased that we were able to sign Jamie Benn, absolutely one of the top players from the NHL," Freezers sports director Stéphane Richer said in a statement on the team's website that has been translated to English here. "He has all the offensive skills, is very dangerous, technically and physically strong. He is also 23, still young and evolving. Jamie is looking forward to his job in Hamburg and is glad that the game break is now over for him."

Benn, a forward that has represented his home country, Canada, in international play, was named to the NHL All-Star team in 2012 and won the Accuracy Shooting contest during the SuperSkills competition.

In three seasons with the Stars, Benn has played in 222 games and has tallied 70 goals with 90 assists. Benn hopes to make his debut with the Freezers on Friday when they take on Adler Mannheim.

This story originally appeared on SBNation.com.