Four Lingering Questions for the Dallas Stars This Summer

Do you have to let it linger?

The summer appears to have truly set in for everyone other than appointed arbitrators. Sure, there are a few remaining free agents and surely a trade or two still to be completed, but mid-July is upon us, and that generally means four to six weeks of wind-down in the hockey world before the furious pace of September catches us all off-guard once again.

For the Stars, we appear to know quite a bit about what next year’s team will look like. We do not know everything. As best I can tell, there are four key questions we might not know the answer to for a little while yet.

What will Jason Robertson’s next contract look like?

As expected, Robertson’s negotiations with Dallas have been every bit the grind his last ones were, to the point where the team was seriously looking at trading him rather than continue to deal with it. Perhaps mercifully for both sides, Robertson will have a one-year salary appointed for him by an independent arbitrator sometime in the next month or two, giving him and his team at least temporary clarity.

Last time both sides did this, you will recall, Robertson did not have arbitration rights. That led to a prolonged stalemate¹ that ended just before the regular season in a four-year bridge deal that walked Robertson right to the point we are today. (Hey, at least Robertson didn’t miss actual regular season games, like Jamie Benn did.)

The real question might not be what Robertson’s next contract will amount to, as something around $12 million has always seemed like the betting man’s target, given all the comparables out there. The Stars have also prepared for something like that amount, if you look at their books. The team can exceed the salary cap by 10% during the offseason, and if Capobianco and Hyry start the year in the minors, they’d have around $12.3 million in cap space with 13 forwards and six defensemen on the roster. That seems the most likely scenario now that Mavrik Bourque’s contract is no longer a factor. And of course, if Tyler Seguin isn’t ready to begin the year, they can always keep him on LTIR for a few extra weeks if they want to play things safe, giving themselves a few million more dollars of temporary wiggle room.

There’s also still the chance that another team out there ponies up and makes Dallas a handsome offer for Robertson even without the guarantee of an extension, but it sure seems like both sides are content to move forward for the time being. The Stars will obviously have a huge decision to make ahead of the trade deadline with Robertson approaching UFA status, but I don’t anticipate any major surprises in terms of Robertson’s salary arbitration right now. Dallas can fit him in at $12-13 million on opening night without making any trades, and they could make even more room than that by moving someone like Faksa or Steel, if needed.

(Full disclosure though: I didn’t anticipate their losing Mavrik Bourque for very little return in this whole process, so there could always be a surprise lurking around the corner in what has been a somehow chaotic and quiet offseason at the same time.)