Jason Robertson just had the best season of his career. He led the Dallas Stars with 96 points, tied Wyatt Johnston for the team lead with 45 goals and played all 82 games.
Then he signed for one year.
The $12 million deal, reached in July to avoid an arbitration hearing, makes this the most consequential contract season in Dallas since Robertson himself became a star. Next summer he can walk.
How it got here
Robertson was a restricted free agent this offseason and filed for arbitration. The deal came about a day before his 27th birthday, and it matches Mikko Rantanen as the highest salary on the team.
It was not the only path. Seattle had a sign-and-trade lined up that would have sent Dallas the seventh overall pick, according to multiple reports, but Robertson would not commit long-term to the Kraken and the trade collapsed. So he is back, on the shortest possible deal.
For the player, the logic is simple: another season like the last one and he enters unrestricted free agency as one of the best wingers on the market. For the Stars, the logic is harder.
The cap problem underneath
Dallas already carries eight cap hits above $8 million: Robertson and Rantanen at $12 million each, then Thomas Harley, Tyler Seguin, Miro Heiskanen, Roope Hintz, Johnston and Jake Oettinger. The team is running a 21-man roster, the minimum, to stay under the $104 million ceiling, according to Pro Hockey Rumors.
Seguin's $9.85 million comes off the books after this season, which is the most obvious source of room for a Robertson extension. But Benn is also on a one-year deal, so every choice next summer is connected.
