Dallas Stars’ Jason Robertson reacts after scoring during the second period of an NHL hockey game against the New Jersey Devils in Newark, N.J., Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Seth Wenig/AP
Alan Pogroszewski had been preaching the same thing for years. It took a few teams from the south to win the Stanley Cup for someone to finally listen.
The founder and CEO of AFP Consulting LLC, which specializes in tax preparation and consulting for professional athletes, urged agents and players to consider the net value of a contract over the total value.
He said while agents are paid based on the top-dollar amount, the take-home pay after taxes should be what matters most to players. That’s because $8 million in Dallas isn’t the same as $8 million in New York, Los Angeles or Toronto.
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The NHL is a copycat league. In the weeks ahead, 31 other teams will look at the Carolina Hurricanes and try to emulate their style. They’ll try to build depth and a suffocating relentlessness that shapes both their offensive and defensive systems.
But when nine of the last 10 Stanley Cup Finals featured teams from states with no state income tax, many across the league started to realize some attributes that may help teams win cannot be emulated without state legislative change.
“There’s a reason why Florida’s good. There’s a reason why Dallas is good,” said Pogroszewski, who estimates he works with roughly 10% of the NHL. “It’s because they have really good leadership, and this leadership understands the value of playing in a no-tax state.”
Vegas, Florida, Tampa, Dallas and Nashville have all represented the group of teams from no-tax states to reach the Stanley Cup Final in the last decade. From 2020-25, all but one of the Stanley Cup champions were from states of that kind.
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While the potential advantage for teams from these states hasn’t led Dallas to win it all, it could help the Stars this summer.
The Stars are negotiating a new long-term contract extension with restricted free agent Jason Robertson. Dallas maintains team control until 2027, but if the sides can’t reach an agreement before the season begins, Robertson could be inclined to test the free agency market next summer.
But how big an advantage could Dallas’ tax advantage be in negotiations with the superstar forward?
The numbers show, in some instances, it’s worth a million bucks.
Dallas Stars general manager Jim Nill speaks during his end of season news conference at Comerica Center on Thursday, May 7, 2026, in Frisco.
Elías Valverde II/The Dallas Morning News
How tax advantage could help Stars reach deal with Jason Robertson
Bayne Pettinger — the owner and lead agent at Apollo Athletics, who has represented several professional hockey players, including Stars captain Jamie Benn — says he and his clients would be “foolish” to not consider the tax issue when entertaining multiple offers from teams.
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But he and Pogroszewski agree no player is choosing to uproot their life and play somewhere just because of the taxes.
“It’s a factor, but by no means, at least in my experience, has it been the deciding factor,” he said. “I don’t know a lot of players that chase the most money possible. I think it’s unique to hockey. A lot of guys would rather raise a Stanley Cup to get an extra couple million.”
Whether the team is in a window to win is among the factors. So are climate, overall cost of living, the organization itself, facilities and the schools if that player plans to raise a family there.
Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming have no income tax. The Lightning, Panthers, Golden Knights, Predators, Stars and Kraken all have the advantage in the NHL. Beginning in 2028, Washington will impose a 9.9% individual income tax on households with taxable income above $1 million, impacting several Kraken players.
“They’re all great destinations as well,” Pettinger said. “They’re all in great sun destinations too.”
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Maybe players are chasing milder winters, but they also haven’t shied away from the tax topic.
When Brad Marchand left Boston to sign in Florida in 2025, he mentioned the lack of state income tax as a reason why he and his teammates were able to re-sign that summer.
“If we were not in a no-tax state, it wouldn’t work out, probably for two guys. Two guys probably would be leaving in that situation,” Marchand said. “That’s a benefit that this team has that we are able to utilize and make work.”
The topic was consistently mentioned when Mitch Marner left Toronto for Vegas and when Mikko Rantanen left Colorado and eventually ended up in Dallas.
Back in December 2025, The Athletic surveyed 120 NHL players, and 86.3% said income tax matters when deciding where to play.
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Pettinger and Pogroszewski, who used to work for an agency, said they’ve both heard of GMs from no-tax states using the lack of income tax as leverage.
“I’ve heard that before, like, ‘Yeah, you’re going to take home more here,’” Pettinger said. “If we’ve got three offers on the table at the exact same dollar amount, and one is in a tax-free state, and we can bring home more money for the player because their earning window is so small, yeah, we’d be foolish not to consider it.”
Stars GM Jim Nill could use that same argument in negotiations with Robertson over the next few weeks.
Pogroszewski and his colleague Kyle Stich helped The Dallas Morning News crunch the numbers. AFP does not work with Robertson as a client.
Stich, who also does contract projections, estimated Robertson would have a similar market value to Mikko Rantanen’s $12 million AAV.
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The left winger has also been linked to teams like Chicago, Pittsburgh, Detroit, the New York Rangers and San Jose as possible landing sites if the Stars chose to trade him. All of those teams play in states with income tax.
Robertson’s $12 million AAV for an eight-year deal in Dallas would have a net take-home pay of $57.4 million, per AFP.
For Chicago to reach that same net take-home pay for an eight-year deal, the Blackhawks would have to pay Robertson $12.9 million annually. For San Jose, the Sharks would have to give Robertson a contract with a $15.4 million AAV.
“I still believe it’s kind of a mindset of the agents,” Pogroszewski said. “As soon as they saw that the player benefited depending on where they negotiated the contract, then they were on board with this.”
What can NHL do to even the playing field?
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has dismissed the idea of taxes creating an unfair advantage for some teams.
“For 20 years, this wasn’t an issue,” Bettman said while in Dallas during the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs. “Now that there’s been some success by Tampa and Florida, it’s being raised. At the end of the day, that may be a factor, but so is cost of living, where somebody’s from, where they want to raise their family, what the quality of life is in a particular locale, which organization, who the owner is, who are the coaches …
“I think there are a myriad of factors that go into where players decide to play, and I don’t think players are simply doing it based on tax.”
Still, Pogroszewski thinks the league should intervene by creating an adjusted salary cap.
Rather than Robertson’s hypothetical contract occupying $12 million of the Stars’ annual salary cap, the adjusted salary cap model would base contracts on percentages of the cap.
“The idea behind it is if somebody is signing a contract that eats up 15% of your salary cap, then it should equal 15% for every team, and that just isn’t true when teams in California or New York have to bid against the team in Las Vegas,” Pogroszewski said.
Pogroszewski, however, acknowledged that he doesn’t think Bettman or the NHL would ever adopt such a model. Pettinger agrees.
“I don’t think that’s fair, because I think it’s on the management and coaches to work with the players that you have,” Pettinger said. “Not everyone is fleeing to these teams. I know guys that say no to going there because they feel there’s a better opportunity to win elsewhere. I don’t think the team should be punished because of where their location is.”
With no sign of change coming from the league, the Stars should continue to benefit from their state’s tax setup.
That makes it even more important for the Stars to re-sign Robertson to a deal that benefits both parties this summer and to put them on track to join Florida, Tampa and Vegas as teams who have managed to capitalize while the tax advantage remains in their favor.