Report: Still ‘Animosity’ Between Dallas Stars & Jason Robertson

The Dallas Stars and RFA Jason Robertson kicked the can down the road last week, signing a one-year, $12 million contract for the 2026-27 season. He will become an unrestricted free agent next summer. The two sides can still get back to negotiating an extension as of January 1st. 

But will they? Or will a trade still be in the offing? 

Insider David Pagnotta said on the DFO Rundown this week that this was more of a "let's just get this done" kind of thing, and that there's still some animosity between the two sides after a long, drawn-out, contentious negotiation process. 

He can't sign an extension, or isn't eligible to do it until Jan 1. But, there's still a little bit of animosity from both sides on this one. Even with the contract getting done, some question marks from the Stars' side and some others within the organization: 'Well why the heck couldn't we get this done a month ago on a one-year, $12 million deal and then expand it from there?' 

I don't think it's calm waters just yet. It has calmed the waters, but there's still some ripples and some waves that are affecting the relationship. Maybe, (not that) this is done, things kind of calm down.

One of the issues that had a big impact on the Stars by the long delay in getting something done, is that they decided they had to move on from a key young player due to their cap issues—especially not know if a big-money extension with Robertson was going to be completed. 

"Potentially could have kept Mavrik Bourque in the mix as kind of part of it," added Pagnotta. 

They wound up trading the 24-year-old burgeoning forward to the Nashville Predators for a second-rounder and a third-rounder in coming drafts. Bourque was an RFA with arbitration rights and ended up signing a six-year deal with the Preds with a $5.5M cap hit.

The Stars are currently $1.3 million over the cap, but teams are allowed to exceed the salary cap by up to 10% during the off-season, right up until training camp ends. 

As for Robertson, Pagnotta says the player is betting on himself, and if he comes up with another 90-100 point season, he could actually price himself out of Dallas for good.