4 Dallas Stars Trade Candidates To Make Room for Jason Robertson Contract

The Dallas Stars are licking their wounds after getting ousted in the first round, far below their high expectations for this season. But they have another big battle to face this summer, in how to find the cap space and re-sign 40-goal scorer and restricted free agent Jason Robertson to a new deal.

Rumors have Robertson wanting Mikko Rantanen money (i.e. $12 million AAV), while the Stars have apparently stopped well short of that in their last offer.

The Stars have just about $11M in cap space for next season, which, of course, won't cut it to get a deal done with Robertson, as is.

With all that being said, Lia Assimakopoulos of the Dallas Morning News has proposed four trade candidate options that would open up enough cap space for the Stars to give Robertson the money he's looking for.

Radek Faksa ($2 million AAV for two more years)
Sam Steel ($2.1 million, one year remaining)
Ilya Lyubushkin ($3.25 million, one year remaining)
Tyler Myers ($1.5 million, one year, Canucks retaining another $1.5M)

Starting up front, either of Faksa or Steel on their own should just give the Stars enough wiggle room to get a deal done with Robertson. They traded Faksa just two years ago to St. Louis, before he re-signed with them again in free agency last summer. That would be a tough pill to swallow for Faksa after he was sent away but decided to let bygones be bygones and re-sign with them. "While it might not be an easy decision for the organization, they could look at (trading him) again," writes Assimakopoulos. The bottom-line center has spent 10 of his 11 seasons in Dallas.

Steel is also a defensively sound forward, but he contributes in a secondary manner offensively as well, popping a career-high 12 goals along with a personal best 16:04 of average ice time. He was shuffled up and down the lineup this season, while still providing solid penalty kill minutes. His $2.1M would also free up enough cap space.

On the blueline, Lyubushkin and his $3.25M would offer the most cap savings if the Stars could move him. "The simplest and most impactful move would be trading Lyubushkin," Assimakopoulos says. "He appeared in just 53 games this season... Simply put, the Stars aren't using him enough to make his $3.25M contract worth it."

As for Myers, his troublesome performance in the playoff series against Minnesota makes the trade deadline acquisition a leading candidate to be moved this offseason as well. The 6'8" defender was directly responsible for two goals against in what was a 4-2 loss in Game 5, leading him to be scratched in Game 6.

Myers would have some say in any deal, as he has a 12-team no-trade list. If you recall, at the time of his trade from the Canucks at the deadline, Myers needed a few days just to consider whether to accept that deal.

Whatever Dallas winds up doing, they will need to move some pieces around if they are to come to terms with one of the most important pieces of their core, Robertson, going into the future.