- Daily Faceoff slotted pending RFA Jason Robertson into the blockbuster tier of its latest trade board
- Carter Hutton floated Seattle as a fit if Dallas and the 96-point winger can’t agree on a deal
- Read below for the cap math hanging over Robertson’s future in Dallas
Daily Faceoff thinks just about every team in the league should be picking up the phone on Jason Robertson.
Matt Larkin refreshed his trade board this week and dropped the Dallas Stars winger into the blockbuster tier. On Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goalie Carter Hutton dug into why a pending restricted free agent of Robertson’s caliber is worth a big swing.
Yaremchuk asked Hutton which team he’d target first. He didn’t hesitate.
“Seattle, Seattle, Seattle,” Hutton said. “This is a team that struggles to put the puck in the net. Jordan Eberle was their leading scorer last year and he finished around 107th in the league in points. If you could land a fish like Jason Robertson, that’d be a big pull.”
The logic tracks. Seattle has spent years hunting for a real top-line scorer, and Robertson would walk in as the best forward on the roster from day one.
Robertson is coming off a 96-point season with 45 goals and 51 assists, and he just landed on the NHL First All-Star Team.
The reason this is even a conversation comes down to money. Robertson’s four-year, $31 million deal is up, and he’s reportedly looking for a raise north of Mikko Rantanen’s $12 million. Dallas has roughly $10 million in cap space.
That math doesn’t work cleanly. GM Jim Nill either finds a way to pay up or moves Robertson for the biggest return he can get before the winger walks.
A few weeks back, the signs in Dallas pointed to an extension getting done. The trade board landing him in the blockbuster tier shows how fast that read can flip once the cap gets involved.
Catch every one of Robertson’s 45 goals from this season:
One way or another, Robertson is going to set the bar for every RFA contract that follows him this summer.
