Dallas Stars Draft Week Drama: Zach Werenski, Jason Robertson, and Jakub Vaněček
Try to keep up, will you?
The Dallas Stars have drafted defenseman Jakub Vaněček in the second round of the draft. As of right now, they don’t pick again until the fifth round. We’ll see if that changes.
The Stars’ blue line depth in prospect terms was somewhat thin going into the draft, so it makes sense that they’d take one of the best defensemen left on the board in Vaněček. The 6-foot-2, 200-lb Czech D-man just finished his first year in the WHL with Tri-City, where he put up 14 goals and 21 assists in 59 games. From what I’ve read about him, I’d call him a “skatey” defenseman with size, and that’s a desirable quality in a late second-round pick.
We will hopefully get a chance to see him up close at development camp next week, so stay tuned for much more on him and the other Stars’ picks from today.
Now, let’s get into some other Stars news.
Zach Werenski?
The reigning Norris Trophy winner is reportedly not going to extend with Columbus in two years, and that means the Blue Jackets are looking to maximize their return for him. Two of the teams that have been mentioned by NHL insiders as having serious interest are Philadelphia and Dallas, though Werenski’s no-move clause gives him ultimate control over the situation.
Werenski turns 29 next month. He has two years left at $9.58M, then he’ll be due a huge raise going into his age-31 season. He just won the award for being the Best Defenseman in the League, which means he is, ah, pretty good. Every single NHL team would be better for having Werenski on their team, and markedly so.
As for the price to acquire Werenski, Pierre LeBrun reported today that the Blue Jackets are not remotely interested in futures. That means they want immediate NHL help. LeBrun reports Toronto as the one Canadian team Werenski might consider going to, so it’s probably safe to assume Matthew Knies would be on the table in a trade like that, which means a team like Dallas would need to be ponying up with a package built around a similarly desirable player. This is the reigning Norris Trophy winner, after all.
So, what could Dallas realistically move for Werenski? Jason Robertson doesn’t seem likely to be involved in this sort of trade unless it’s a three-way deal, as Columbus doesn’t profile as a place I’d put high on Robertson’s list (though I’ll admit I don’t know that for sure). Columbus won’t want to acquire another star player only to lose him in a year—especially with Kirill Marchenko also informing them that he’s gone next summer. That means Dallas would have to be moving a different player (or two), which pretty much has to involve at least one of Mavrik Bourque, Lian Bichsel, or…Thomas Harley.
Here’s the question you have to ask if you’re Dallas: how much better do you get by losing Harley and gaining Werenski for two years? Are you willing to accept the risk of losing Werenski after that—or if not, are you willing to pay the price of keeping him after Quinn Hughes and Cale Makar have significantly raised the bar for elite defensemen’s salaries in the NHL?
Harley just had a down year, yes. He also just showed, like Werenski, that he can play on the biggest international stages, with two great appearances for Team Canada (and one outstanding playoff run in 2025) under his belt. Harley’s eight-year extension at $10.6 million might seem rich relative to his most recent performance, but he’s not even 25 yet, and he’s already shown he can be the team’s number one defenseman and PP1 quarterback when needed. He’s also under team control until well into his thirties. That is an asset you don’t flip lightly, if ever.
But with the Jason Robertson situation looking likely to prompt at least a partial roster makeover, would the Stars be willing to lose another good young player in order to keep the window as wide-open right now as possible? Harley is obviously the player Columbus would want in return, but it’s tough for me to see Jim Nill parting with a player that could turn into Zach Werenski for an older version that will be a ton more expensive in two years.
Oh, and by the way: Werenski can play on the right side, which he’s done with Team USA, where he played on the right side with Jake Sanderson at 4 Nations and the Olympics. Pulling off a deal like this would give the Stars the option of playing Werenski with Heiskanen on arguably the best defense pairing in the league, or else putting the two on separate pairings, creating an impossible matchup issue for opposing teams.
Obviously, it’s a tantalizing prospect. But Dallas would be bidding against a ton of people, so the price would be steep. And this time, they don’t have a Rantanen-like haul ready to hand over, unless they could work Jason Robertson into the deal, somehow. That, to me, seems like the most likely way to work this. Because if you could somehow manage to move Robertson and get back Werenski without losing Harley (again, this requires a third team), then you could have a team looking like this, next year (which fits under the cap, by the way):
The winger depth is obviously a major issue there, as you’ve lost the best left-wing in the NHL in exchange for the best defenseman in the NHL. It’s a pickle, to be sure. Speaking of wingers, let’s talk about those. Or at least one of them.
As Elliotte Friedman reported before the second round of the draft today, the Stars are still “actively” exploring trading Jason Robertson. They’ve also introduced the possibility of moving him without any extension in order to avoid the messiness that has been his camp’s refusal to extend with the team(s) Dallas has worked out trades with, so far.
The issue here is just how much less a potential trade return would be without an extension attached. Sure, it opens up the market, but Robertson only has one year left, and teams have to be wary about thinking he’d automatically extend with them unless something is in writing.
As Sean wrote today, that trade return could be quite a bit less—as much as one first-rounder instead of three and that’s got to be casting even more of a pall over whatever’s left of negotiations between the two camps than was already there. I can’t imagine Dallas is remotely pleased about how things have gone, even if they bear some responsibility for winding up in this position themselves, too.
Of course, Robertson’s knee injury right before the playoffs in 2025 didn’t help his value, as he didn’t really get back online until the Stars were losing to Edmonton in the third round. You have to wonder if Robertson’s trade value might have been higher last year if he’d been healthy for all three rounds—and if Dallas would have been more open to trading him in that case, with two years remaining in team control rather than just one? (That’s just speculation, to be clear.)
Robertson’s apparent refusal to sign for less than $14 million right now is the impasse, by all accounts. That, again, is absolutely his right, and an ask that’s not far off where the market is going and maybe already has gone. But both sides’ apparent inability to work out a sign-and-trade seems to have caught Dallas at least a little bit off-balance, and this is where I wonder just where the disconnect in communication has been between the two camps. I can’t imagine the Stars would have gotten as far down the road with Seattle (and maybe St. Louis?) as they reportedly did if they didn’t think there was at least a decent chance Robertson was open to going there. The frustration has to be pretty high, at this point.
The question now is this: can the Stars and Robertson come to an agreement on anything, or are they in a position now where they just want to move him and move on, even if it means taking a slightly (or significantly) smaller return?
Honestly, I’d still be shocked if they don’t get a big haul for Robertson. He’s as desirable a player as there is out there, or at least he was, until Werenski’s availability really became public.
But if Dallas’s offers are suddenly only for one first-rounder and a player or two, would they be more willing to risk qualifying Robertson and inviting offer sheets, all of which would net them four first-rounders? That would likely give them more cap room this year, and who knows—maybe they’d be willing to extend Robertson at his higher ask starting next year, if nobody offer-sheeted him.
(It should be noted that any scenario involving keeping Robertson pretty much requires moving Harley to acquire Werenski, given the cap constraints.)
Anyway, I’m now wondering if Dallas would eschew a Robertson trade right now if the asks are too low to be worth it, opting instead to go the QO route and look to trade (or extend) him later in the year. Werenski might command some of the premier trade packages that were in play for Robertson, and I wonder if that could stall things a bit, potentially. Qualifying Robertson would also likely give the Stars room to extend Mavrik Bourque before Monday, which at least gives them surer footing going into free agency on Wednesday.
Anyway, we’ll see what Jim Nill has to say after the draft today, but as it stands right now, everything is very much still up in the air.