The Dallas Stars’ offseason is off to a rocky start, with the team suffering yet another blow of a vetoed trade before free agency opens Wednesday.
The Stars had reportedly reached a verbal agreement with the Columbus Blue Jackets to trade for the league’s top defenseman last season and send 24-year-old defenseman Thomas Harley to Columbus as the centerpiece of a return that may have included other players and picks.
The deal was reached Monday night, Friedman reports, and the Stars were unaware that the trade would be vetoed. Werenski rejected the deal Tuesday night hours before it was set to be finalized early Wednesday. He has a full no-move clause.
The superstar defenseman reportedly doesn’t plan to re-sign in Columbus when his contract is up in two seasons, so the Blue Jackets began entertaining trade offers last week. The Stars were among the teams making the biggest push for the 28-year-old defenseman, who scored 22 goals last season and recorded 81 points in 75 games.
Werenski has an annual cap hit of $9.6 million, which is about a million less than Harley, who is set to begin an eight-year deal this fall that pays him $10.59 million annually.
But with the two sides struggling to reach middle ground in negotiations, the Stars have explored trading Robertson. Stars GM Jim Nill confirmed Saturday that they had a deal lined up to send Robertson to the Seattle Kraken where he would receive an eight-year contract worth $15 million annually, and the Stars would have received a package that included Seattle’s No. 7 overall pick in last weekend’s draft.
But Robertson, who doesn’t have a no-trade clause but has the right to decide not to extend somewhere, said he wouldn’t sign an extension in Seattle, nixing the deal.
After two failed trades, pressure builds for Nill and the Stars to have better success Wednesday when the free agency market opens. The most pressing question is whether the Stars can land RFAs Robertson and Mavrik Bourque or if another team will offer them an offer sheet that the Stars cannot match.