Next contract for Stars’ Jason Robertson could get interesting
The Dallas Stars locked in a crucial piece of their core for the next eight seasons after this one when they signed defenseman Thomas Harley to a lucrative extension.
With the deal, Harley joined Miro Heiskanen, Mikko Rantanen, Roope Hintz and Wyatt Johnston among the rest of Dallas’ young stars to sign long-term deals to stay with the team. That list notably does not include winger Jason Robertson, who is on the last year of his four-year, $31 million deal and is due for a raise.
With so many players signed for big money, general manager Jim Nill does not have infinite flexibility to pay Robertson, but it’s certainly feasible with the salary cap poised to grow considerably over the next few years. Robertson was often speculated on as a trade target this past summer with the Stars up tight against the cap, and the fact that Nill did not resort to trading him to solve that issue signals that keeping Robertson in Texas is a priority.
On Wednesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discussed
Tyler Yaremchuk: They have nine forwards, five defensemen and both goalies under contract [for next year], so that’s a lot of pieces in place. But with that $20 million, they need to find a way to fit in Jason Robertson and continue to round out that roster. They have some other free agents, a guy like Mavrik Bourque… they’ll probably need to find another top four defensemen to add into that group. Money’s a little bit tighter in Dallas. That $20 million they have left, it could wither away pretty quickly if Robertson’s getting 10-plus.
Carter Hutton: It’s going to be interesting because this is that switchover too, with Stankoven moving out and Rantanen coming in and taking that big deal, it trimmed off a lot of that cap that was going to go to Robertson… Now it comes down to Robertson, where does he want to be, too? If he takes a healthy number, I still think you can promote from within, too. The Texas Stars, their American League hockey team, are consistently good. They’re consistently developing players.
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…