Stars Hoping To Extend Jason Robertson During Season

The Dallas Stars were under the heat lamp in negotiations with leading scorer Jason Robertson this summer. With little cap space to sign the routine 40-goal scorer, Dallas stalled a deal until Robertson’s request for salary arbitration forced their hand. He signed a one-year, $12MM contract that avoided arbitration. The deal tied Robertson for Dallas’ highest cap hit, alongside Mikko Rantanen who is signed through 2033. More importantly, a one-year term will walk Robertson to unrestricted free agency on July 1st, 2027. Stars general manager Jim Nill recognized that risk and said that the club’s focus will be on extending Robertson before he can reach free agency in a recent interview with NHL Network.

Robertson will be worth the payday likely coming his way. He has been a perennial top scorer for the Stars, leading the team in goals through four of the last five seasons. Among those seasons, Robertson has crested the 40-goal mark three times and surpassed 100 points once. He has averaged 40 goals and 91 points per 82 games since 2021, ranking him 15th among all NHL skaters in that time frame.

Many of his peers at the top of the leaderboards are pushing the boundaries of the NHL’s new cap ecosystem. Defenseman Cale Makar, who ranks directly above Robertson in average points since 2021, just signed an extension that will make him the first NHL player to make more than $20MM annually. Kirill Kaprizov recently signed a deal that pays $17MM yearly, while Leon Draisaitl’s cap hit reached $14MM. It seems Robertson will be due for a hefty raise on any new contract, even as Dallas points towards the long-term, $12MM price tag of players like Rantanen and Mitch Marner.

In the end, Robertson will likely need to sacrifice some salary upside to earn more term with the Stars. The club is already carrying a $105.36MM cap hit – just over $1MM above the NHL’s current cap limit – per PuckPedia. They’ll need to shift money headed into the 2026-27 season and have paydays for Lian Bichsel and Tyler Seguin coming up next summer, in addition to Robertson’s collosal deal. Dallas will need to find the happy-medium between an agressive, and budget-friendly, offer while benefiting from the rising salary cap should they want to secure Robertson for the long-term. If they can’t propose an enticing deal, the star winger would be likely to find a substantial payday on the open market. That will be the risk that Jim Nill keeps front-of-mind throughout the 2026-27 season, which will offer Dallas a few months to work out something that feels right for both sides.