are negotiating a new long-term contract extension<\/a> with restricted free agent Jason Robertson. Dallas maintains team control until 2027, but if the sides can\u2019t reach an agreement before the season begins, Robertson could be inclined to test the free agency market next summer.\u00a0<\/p>\nBut how big an advantage could Dallas\u2019 tax advantage be in negotiations with the superstar forward?\u00a0<\/p>\n
The numbers show, in some instances, it\u2019s worth a million bucks.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Dallas]()
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Dallas Stars general manager Jim Nill speaks during his end of season news conference at Comerica Center on Thursday, May 7, 2026, in Frisco.<\/p>\n
El\u00edas Valverde II\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
How tax advantage could help Stars reach deal with Jason Robertson<\/p>\n
Bayne Pettinger \u2014 the owner and lead agent at Apollo Athletics, who has represented several professional hockey players, including Stars captain Jamie Benn \u2014 says he and his clients would be \u201cfoolish\u201d to not consider the tax issue when entertaining multiple offers from teams.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s a factor, but by no means, at least in my experience, has it been the deciding factor,\u201d he said. \u201cI 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.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey’re all great destinations as well,\u201d Pettinger said. \u201cThey’re all in great sun destinations too.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Maybe players are chasing milder winters, but they also haven\u2019t shied away from the tax topic.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we were not in a no-tax state, it wouldn\u2019t work out, probably for two guys. Two guys probably would be leaving in that situation,” Marchand said. \u201cThat’s a benefit that this team has that we are able to utilize and make work.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The topic was consistently mentioned when Mitch Marner left Toronto for Vegas and when Mikko Rantanen left Colorado and eventually ended up in Dallas.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Back in December 2025, The Athletic surveyed 120 NHL players, and 86.3% said income tax matters when deciding where to play.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Pettinger and Pogroszewski, who used to work for an agency, said they\u2019ve both heard of GMs from no-tax states using the lack of income tax as leverage.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI’ve heard that before, like, \u2018Yeah, you’re going to take home more here,\u2019\u201d Pettinger said. \u201cIf 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.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Stars GM Jim Nill could use that same argument in negotiations with Robertson over the next few weeks.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Pogroszewski and his colleague Kyle Stich helped The Dallas Morning News crunch the numbers. AFP does not work with Robertson as a client.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Stich, who also does contract projections, estimated Robertson would have a similar market value to Mikko Rantanen\u2019s $12 million AAV.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Robertson\u2019s $12 million AAV for an eight-year deal in Dallas would have a net take-home pay of $57.4 million, per AFP. \u00a0<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI still believe it’s kind of a mindset of the agents,\u201d Pogroszewski said. \u201cAs soon as they saw that the player benefited depending on where they negotiated the contract, then they were on board with this.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
What can\u00a0NHL do to even the playing field?\u00a0<\/p>\n
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has dismissed the idea of taxes creating an unfair advantage for some teams.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFor 20 years, this wasn\u2019t an issue,\u201d Bettman said while in Dallas during the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs. \u201cNow that there\u2019s been some success by Tampa and Florida, it\u2019s being raised. At the end of the day, that may be a factor, but so is cost of living, where somebody\u2019s 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 …\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there are a myriad of factors that go into where players decide to play, and I don\u2019t think players are simply doing it based on tax.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Still, Pogroszewski thinks the league should intervene by creating an adjusted salary cap.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rather than Robertson\u2019s hypothetical contract occupying $12 million of the Stars\u2019 annual salary cap, the adjusted salary cap model would base contracts on percentages of the cap.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 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,\u201d Pogroszewski said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Pogroszewski, however, acknowledged that he doesn\u2019t think Bettman or the NHL would ever adopt such a model. Pettinger agrees.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI don’t think that’s fair, because I think it’s on the management and coaches to work with the players that you have,\u201d Pettinger said. \u201cNot 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.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
With no sign of change coming from the league, the Stars should continue to benefit from their state\u2019s tax setup.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dallas Stars’ Jason Robertson reacts after scoring during the second period of an NHL hockey game against the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341756,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103,2484,87994,88187,88534],"class_list":["post-341755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-nhl","tag-tp-dallas-stars","tag-tp-jason-robertson","tag-tp-jim-nill"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}