as they negotiate a long-term contract extension<\/a>. Robertson is a restricted free agent this summer and is set to be an unrestricted free agent next summer if a long-term deal isn\u2019t reached. Making $7.75 million on his current contract set to expire July 1, Robertson is due for a massive raise.\u00a0<\/p>\nBut the two sides haven\u2019t been able to agree on what that raise should be.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Several reports indicate the Stars and Robertson are about $2 million apart on their contract proposals, with the Stars offering Robertson around $12 million and the forward asking for $14 million. Their inability to reach a compromise has prompted the Stars to explore trading their leading goal scorer.<\/p>\n
Nill confirmed Saturday reports that the Stars had set up a sign-and-trade deal with the Seattle Kraken. Seattle would\u2019ve signed Robertson to an eight-year contract worth $15 million annually, and the return would\u2019ve included Seattle\u2019s seventh overall pick in this weekend\u2019s NHL draft, per reports, but Robertson killed the deal. Nill wouldn\u2019t elaborate on the deal and its return any further.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While Robertson doesn\u2019t have a no-move clause, he can decide not to sign a long-term extension. Without that guarantee, many teams won\u2019t agree to trade for him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s his right,\u201d Nill said. \u201cHe\u2019s earned his right. We have our right to do what we have to do, too. That\u2019s part of the business that we\u2019re in.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Even after the Seattle proposal, Nill wouldn\u2019t say whether he thinks it\u2019s more likely the team trades or re-signs Robertson at this point. He maintained that Dallas\u2019 preference is to extend the forward if they can make it work for both sides.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the end, we\u2019ve got to do our job,\u201d Nill said. \u201cIf there\u2019s an opportunity to make that we think is a good opportunity for our team, we have to do it. [The Seattle deal] was also a good opportunity for him. In the end, it didn\u2019t materialize. Now, we continue to talk. I talked to his representatives right after that, and we continue to move forward.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Robertson\u2019s contract negotiation may be the most pressing issue, but Nill and his staff have a number of unresolved matters to work out between now and July 1.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Stars have a number of depth players who are pending unrestricted free agents. They have to negotiate a raise for restricted free agent Mavrik Bourque. They have to determine whether captain Jamie Benn will come back, and if so, at what price? They also have to explore the market for other top trade targets like Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin and Norris Trophy winner Zach Werenski from Columbus. \u00a0<\/p>\n
The Stars have been linked to both players, but Nill cautioned against believing those rumors.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Some of the things you hear might not be true,\u201d he said. \u201cI’ll do my calls. We’ll talk to teams. That’s what we’re going to work through over the next four or five days.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
When it comes to Robertson, the Stars also have to anticipate the potential that another team could give him an offer sheet or that Robertson could try to force his way to arbitration, dragging on the negotiations far longer than the Stars would hope and making it more difficult for them to round out their roster on July 1.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re prepared,\u201d Nill said. \u201cWe just don\u2019t know what direction it\u2019s going to go.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jim\u00a0Nill asked the same question Saturday that everyone around the NHL wants to know the answer to.\u00a0 \u201cOur…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":353090,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103,87994,88187,88534],"class_list":["post-353089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","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\/353089","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=353089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}