Dallas Stars left wing Jason Robertson (21) and right wing Mikko Rantanen (96) prepare for a face off during the first period in Game 5 of a first-round NHL hockey playoff series against the Minnesota Wild at American Airlines Center on Tuesday, April 28, 2026, in Dallas.
Smiley N. Pool/The Dallas Morning News
The Dallas Stars’ 2025-26 season ended earlier than expected, with the Stars losing in six games to the Minnesota Wild in the first round of the playoffs.
The surprising first-round exit after three consecutive runs to the Western Conference finals leaves plenty of questions for the team as it enters the offseason.
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Here are five of the top questions facing the Stars this summer:
Will the Stars extend Jason Robertson?
If the Stars want to keep Jason Robertson on the roster, they’re going to have to pay him.
The left winger had a standout season for Dallas in a contract year, tying Wyatt Johnston for a team-high 45 goals and recording 96 points in 82 games. He was also Dallas’ most consistent player in a short playoff run, recording goals in the Stars’ first five games of the postseason.
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A pure goal scorer, Robertson has proven he’s worth the large contract he is likely to demand. The Stars may not be able to get away with paying him any less than the $12 million annually they pay Mikko Rantanen.
Robertson is a restricted free agent this offseason, meaning the Stars still have team control. If Dallas makes him a qualifying offer of $9.3 million by June 29, the Stars will retain negotiating rights, meaning they have the right of first refusal to match any offer sheet that Robertson receives from another team. Robertson is also arbitration-eligible but would have to waive his right to sign with a new team to go to arbitration.
The Stars could make a qualifying offer, but if they want to keep Robertson long-term, it’s in their best interest to extend him for longer than just a year this summer. Robertson will be an unrestricted free agent next summer, so he will be able to entertain other, likely more lucrative, deals from other teams at that point.
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If the Stars don’t want to keep Robertson long-term, they could keep him for a year on a qualifying offer and trade him either in the offseason or ahead of the trade deadline.
But all signs have pointed to Dallas wanting to lock up Robertson for the next eight years. According to PuckPedia, the Stars have just $11 million in cap space remaining next season to sign 2-3 forwards, so they will need to make some room.
Dallas Stars left wing Jamie Benn prepares for a face off during the first period in Game 5 of a first-round NHL hockey playoff series against the Minnesota Wild at American Airlines Center on Tuesday, April 28, 2026, in Dallas.
Smiley N. Pool/The Dallas Morning News
Will captain Jamie Benn return?
The Stars captain turns 37 years old in July. His career is nearing its end.
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But the question is whether Benn will give it one more go to try to get his name on the Stanley Cup before he hangs up the skates and the “C,” which he’s worn longer than any player in Stars history.
Benn is beloved within the Stars organization to the point that it’s hard to see GM Jim Nill denying him an opportunity to come back if he wants it. Last offseason, he gave Benn a one-year contract worth $1 million with the potential for $3 million in performance bonuses, which Benn earned $2 million of this year. That will factor into Dallas’ cap next season.
But after his performance in the last three playoff runs, the Stars and their captain are due for some tough conversations this summer.
While he’s long past his Art Ross days, Benn has been a consistent contributor in the last few regular seasons. Despite missing nearly 20 games with a collapsed lung, he still scored 15 goals and recorded 36 points this season. But the captain was a non-factor in the playoffs. He didn’t record a point in six games, was minus-7 and took some dangerous and careless penalties that cost the Stars.
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He did the same last postseason where he recorded three points in 18 games and was minus-11.
Benn is following a similar trajectory to Joe Pavelski, who couldn’t keep up in the playoffs late in his career. Pavelski signed two one-year contracts before retiring in 2024.
We’ll see if Benn signs a second this summer — or if the Stars will begin their search for a new captain next fall.
Are the Stars willing to have tough conversations about Roope Hintz and Tyler Seguin? And what leverage do they have?
The Stars had to play their first-round series without two of their top-six forwards — Roope Hintz and Tyler Seguin. It certainly would’ve been a different series if the two were available, especially since 5-on-5 scoring was such an issue for the Stars.
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Hintz and Seguin are key pieces of what the Stars are trying to build, but in the last two postseason runs, the Stars have had to play without them. Seguin has been injury-prone throughout his entire career and suffered season-ending injuries before New Year’s in the last two seasons — hip surgery last season before a torn ACL this season.
Hintz suffered a setback in his recovery from a lower-body injury suffered on March 6, ultimately making that injury season-ending. He also suffered a broken foot early in the 2025 Western Conference finals and wasn’t 100% in key games down the stretch. He missed four playoff games with an injury the year before that.
Because of the timing of Hintz’s injury and the new NHL salary cap rules, the Stars weren’t able to bring in a replacement to account for that loss. While the Stars did use Seguin’s cap hit ahead of the trade deadline to bring in Michael Bunting and Tyler Myers, those two additions didn’t match what they lost in Seguin.
Seguin is entering the last year of his contract, which pays him $9.85 million annually. Hintz makes $8.45 million annually and is locked up until 2031. Both players have no-move clauses, so the Stars have little say in what they can do.
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But they can’t afford to enter another playoff run without those two in the lineup. Maybe better luck is all they can hope for.
Dallas Stars defenseman Tyler Myers looks on during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Chicago Blackhawks Sunday, March 8, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Julio Cortez/AP
Will Tyler Myers and Ilya Lyubushkin be back?
The Stars have seven defensemen under contract next season, so they could enter training camp without making any changes on the backend.
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Miro Heiskanen, Esa Lindell, Thomas Harley, Nils Lundkvist and Lian Bichsel are locked in and expected to return, but what will Dallas do with its sixth and seventh spots?
The Stars have consistently had five trustworthy defensemen in the playoffs. That group was thinned after the facial injury to Lundkvist in Game 4.
The Stars had options between Tyler Myers, Ilya Lyubushkin, Alexander Petrovic and Kyle Capobianco, but none were ideal.
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Petrovic and Capobianco are unrestricted free agents who may or may not be back — and may or may not spend most of their season in Dallas. Both have spent large chunks of the last few seasons in Cedar Park.
Lyubushkin and Myers are under contract again, and their contracts take up far more room on the Stars’ cap. Lyubushkin is entering the third year of his deal worth $3.25 million annually. Appearing in just 53 games for Dallas this regular season and two in the playoffs, the Stars are overpaying for the return they’re getting.
As for Myers, Nill brought him in at the deadline and got Vancouver to retain part of the rest of his contract, which extends through next season. He’s taking up $1.5 million of the Stars’ cap. But after his dismal performance in a critical Game 5 that led him to be a health scratch in Game 6, the Stars may want to move him to clear room for another contract.
Will Wild series better prepare an unproven Glen Gulutzan for 2027?
The Stars took a major risk by firing a proven coach in Pete DeBoer and bringing in Glen Gulutzan, who had never won a playoff game before this spring.
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The jury is still out on whether it was the right move.
Gulutzan’s accomplishments in the regular season can’t be diminished. He led a Stars team that dealt with injuries all season long to 112 points and 50 wins. He led the team to tie its longest points streak in franchise history. He also turned the Stars’ power play into a juggernaut in both the regular season and the playoffs, where it scored in all six games against the Wild.
But the coach still hasn’t won a playoff series in his head coaching career. He’s won just two playoff games in 10 tries.
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Gulutzan might’ve taken too long to adjust in the series. Why wait until an elimination game to bring Michael Bunting into the lineup, who finished the season with double-digit points and ended up setting up a go-ahead goal in his first game of playoff action? The changes he made may not have been great ones — like elevating Tyler Myers to a top-four pairing after an injury to Nils Lundkvist.
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It’s easy to criticize now given the result. But just as the players will learn from another failed postseason, the coaching staff will, too. The pressure will be on them to return to the conference finals, at least.
Otherwise, Stars fans might start calling for DeBoer to follow in Gulutzan’s footsteps and return to Dallas for a second stint.