FRISCO, Texas \u2014 Jason Robertson is happy to be with the Dallas Stars for another season, and not too concerned about the process that led to a\u00a0$12 million contract\u00a0to avoid a salary arbitration hearing only weeks after the team had a deal to trade him.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened from then to now is, kind of doesn’t matter anymore,\u201d Robertson said Wednesday, his 27th birthday and a day after signing the one-year deal. \u201cJust want to focus on having a great summer this year and coming into camp ready to go and trying to win a (Stanley) Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n
Robertson has averaged more than a point a game in his six full NHL seasons, all with the Stars \u2014 490 points (213 goals and 277 assists) in 456 regular-season games.<\/p>\n
He was their leading scorer with 96 points (45 goals and 51 assists) last season, and had five goals with three assists in six playoff games. His third 40-goal season wrapped up a\u00a0$31-million, four-year deal\u00a0before going into this off-season as a restricted free agent.<\/p>\n
Without an extension before next off-season, Robertson could have become an unrestricted free agent for the first time.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day, it’s a business for them, for me, everything. I don’t know their future plans, they don’t know our future plans either,\u201d Robertson said on a Zoom call after skating in Michigan. \u201cI\u2019m sure we\u2019re just both content to getting it done, having now the time to re-evaluate both of our futures.\u201d<\/p>\n
General manager Jim Nill said the Stars hope to reach a long-term extension, though the earliest they could sign such a deal would be Jan. 1. He said they would start working on it before then with a player he has called a franchise cornerstone.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s our plan,\u201d Nill said earlier in the day during an availability at team headquarters. \u201cWe\u2019re happy he wants to be a Dallas Star. We want him to be a Dallas Star, and have those discussions. \u2026 We want to make this work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nill said different scenarios were discussed during these negotiations, including long- and short-term deals. He said Robertson’s representatives made it clear throughout the process that the forward wanted to be with the Stars.<\/p>\n
“This was probably the best fit for this time,\u201c Nill said of the one-year contract.<\/p>\n
Nill and Robertson both acknowledged their desire to get a deal done and avoid an arbitration hearing scheduled for Saturday.<\/p>\n
Robertson, the 39th overall pick in the second round of the 2017 NHL draft, has played in all 328 regular-season games the past four seasons. He has scored 365 points (155 goals and 210 assists) in that span.<\/p>\n
His $12-million salary for 2026-27 will match forward\u00a0Mikko Rantanen\u00a0for the highest on the Stars.\u00a0Rantanen just completed the first season\u00a0of the $96 million, eight-year extension he signed to facilitate the deadline trade that brought him to Dallas from Carolina in March 2025.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Stars had a sign-and-trade deal in place\u00a0during last month’s draft to send Robertson to Seattle for the seventh overall pick. While Robertson couldn\u2019t veto that trade, he didn’t agree to a long-term deal with the Kraken \u2014 a reported $120 million over eight years ($15 million a season).<\/p>\n
With veteran Tyler Seguin going into the final season of his contract that pays $9.85 million annually, and the NHL salary cap also increasing by almost that much next off-season, the Stars would be in a much better position to extend Robertson than they were now.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m happy to happy to be playing with them starting in September,\u201d Robertson said, \u201cand see where it goes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FRISCO, Texas \u2014 Jason Robertson is happy to be with the Dallas Stars for another season, and not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":820334,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-820333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=820333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/820334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=820333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=820333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=820333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}