Initial Thoughts on the Stars' Trading Mavrik Bourque and Ilya Lyubushkin to Nashville

Well,

It was always going to be a tight squeeze to fit both Jason Robertson and Mavrik Bourque onto the roster this year. That became even more apparent with Robertson’s camp holding the line on a $14 million ask over the weekend, and it forced the Stars to qualify both Bourque and Robertson over the weekend while they continued to explore options to remake the roster.

Two of those options didn’t come off, in Zach Werenski and the Robertson trade to Seattle. And now, we’ve learned that another consequence of the Stars’ cap crunch is that they’ve opted to move on from Mavrik Bourque.

The trade in its entirety is Bourque and Ilya Lyubushkin for a 2027 second-round pick, and Vegas’s 2028 third-round pick, which Nashville had previously acquired. Let’s go over some initial thoughts while Dallas works on whatever other moves are still coming.