Jason Robertson Turns Down Huge Dallas Offer, New Massive Asking Price Revealed
According to one NHL source, the Stars had offered Robertson a contract of eight years with $12 million AAV, which would match the contract they handed Mikko Rantanen after acquiring the winger from the Hurricanes. Multiple reports have speculated that Robertson could be seeking upward of $14 million AAV -- the same cap number his new agent, Andy Scott, secured for Leon Draisaitl in Edmonton two years ago.
$14 million? It can be argued that it's not an insane ask for a player who has topped the 40-goal mark in three of the past five seasons and has not missed a single game in the past four years. And of course, Rantanen's $12M signed last year, would probably be worth about $14M in the new soaring cap world.
Hockey insider Mike Johnson wondered, on First Up on Wednesday morning, if the fact that the Stars didn't go long-term with him on his first contract (post entry-level), might be playing into Robertson's hard-ball approach now.
"I don't know if he feels disrespected, but I can see how somebody might say, 'OK, well, you could've had me before, and it would have been for less, but you said go prove it. Well, I did. I proved the heck out of it! So I'm not cutting you any slack because you cut me none last time. If you want me, I'm one year away from UFA.'"
Dallas gave Robertson a four-year deal coming off his ELC, with a $7.75M AAV. That contract is now expired, and he has this one year as an RFA with arbitration rights.
An Offer Sheet for Jason Robertson is a real possibility
As for an offer sheet coming his way, the compensation for any signing team for any offer sheet above $11.93M AAV is a whopping four first-round picks over the next five drafts.
Wyshynski points out that Brady Tkachuk just went for three firsts, so it's not out of the question. And he reports that all but three teams in the NHL have that first-round capital available to them to use.
And Dallas wouldn't be able to match, as they have only $10.1M in cap space at the moment.
In the end, Wyshynski figures that the most likely scenario, if they can't come to terms with Robertson, is that GM Jim Nill trades his high-scoring forward for "something slightly less" than that four first-rounder offer sheet compensation package.
