Metropolitan Div. Team Makes Offer ‘With Heft’ For Jason Robertson

The Jason Robertson saga with the Dallas Stars continues. They would like to sign the restricted free agent, but they simply don't have the room under the cap to give him the $14M or that he's looking for from them. 

"I believe that the Stars have offered $12M a year, I think they may be willing to go a little bit higher, maybe $12.5M," Elliotte Friedman said Monday morning. "But at this point in time, I don't think he's interested in being under $14 million. So there's a gap." Yup, that would be a pretty significant gap. With that, trade talks with other teams have been going strong. 

We know that the Stars actually reached a deal with the Seattle Kraken last week, but Robertson rejected Seattle's eight-year, $15M AAV contract offer.  The trade would have involved three first-round picks and a player. 

Friedman reported that he believes another team is getting pretty serious with Dallas right now, too. 

I heard that there were talks with Pittsburgh on (the weekend), and some felt that there was some momentum there, but obviously it didn't happen. Pittsburgh is (a) team that people say are trying to do something with 'heft' to it. 

Despite all that, Friedman still believes that Robertson's first choice is to sign long-term with Dallas. It's hard to believe that, however, if the three-time 40-goal scorer doesn't come down on his demands, knowing that the Stars simply don't have the cap wherewithal to get it done at his current asking price. 

Dallas currently has just $9.2 million in cap space, per PuckPedia, and they also have other UFAs and RFAs they're considering re-signing, most notably Mavrik Bourque. 

The Stars, on Monday, issued qualifying offers for Bourque, Arttu Hyry, and  Robertson, thus retaining their negotiating rights.

Fellow insider David Pagnotta has reported that "Things have gotten a little testy from what my understanding is... that's led to the Stars now exploring the marketplace across the board."

This will continue to be one of the biggest stories of the NHL offseason, and it could really come to a head on Wednesday at noon if a deal is not done yet. At that point, teams will be able to officially submit an offer sheet to Robertson.