Jason Robertson Rejects Long-Term Offer From Kraken

The Kraken have been looking to make a big splash up front dating back to the trade deadline when they made a big offer to entice Artemi Panarin to join them but that was declined.  Now, it appears they have been rebuffed again in those efforts.

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports citing multiple league sources that the Stars allowed pending RFA winger Jason Robertson to discuss a contract with Seattle.  Had a contract been agreed upon, it’s believed a trade was in place, with the seventh overall pick being part of the deal.  However, while the Kraken made a pitch of a contract that would have seen him receive roughly $15MM per season on an eight-year deal, the offer was rejected.

Robertson is one of the top pending restricted free agents this summer and is coming off another high-end performance, one that saw him record 45 goals and 51 assists in 82 games.  It was the fourth straight campaign where he had at least 80 points and he also had a 46-goal, 109-point effort back in 2022-23.  As far as first-line wingers go, Robertson has been one of the more consistent ones, to say the least.

This isn’t a situation where the Stars don’t want to keep Robertson around.  GM Jim Nill has called extending the 26-year-old a priority but their cap situation is going to make that task difficult.  Per PuckPedia, Dallas has a little over $9MM in cap space available which isn’t even enough to cover his $9.3MM qualifying offer.  There aren’t a lot of viable trade candidates on their roster so creating the cap space to keep him in the fold will be especially tricky, understandably leading Nill to at least consider trade offers for Robertson’s services as well.

Friedman adds that the Stars were hoping they’d be able to get Robertson signed around what Mikko Rantanen’s currently making which is $12MM per season.  While that still would require them trimming some salary (and likely trading Mavrik Bourque, another pending RFA), it doesn’t appear that Robertson is willing to sign for that.  Instead, Friedman relays that they’re around $2MM per season apart in discussions.  It appears that the gap may be too much to overcome given how far these discussions with Seattle went.  Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic adds (Twitter link) that the Stars are now circling back to other teams that showed interest in Robertson recently which suggests that the trade route may be the likeliest outcome now.

A $15MM price tag would have made Robertson the second-highest-paid player in the NHL for the upcoming season.  Given Friedman’s reported gap in negotiations between Robertson and the Stars, this might be a situation of Robertson not wanting to go to the Kraken more than the 26-year-old thinking he’ll be able to land more from another team.  Either way, Dallas is now poised to pick up trade talks elsewhere while Seattle will have to regroup once again and attempt to land another big fish to help their team for next season.