- Matty Beniers says the Kraken room took Jason Robertson’s rejection personally
- Seattle offered Robertson eight years at roughly $15 million per season in June
- Read below for what Beniers said about Seattle’s reputation around the league
Matty Beniers is not pretending the Jason Robertson thing did not sting.
Beniers was asked by Mark Lazerus of The Athletic at the NHL player media tour in Las Vegas whether Robertson turning down a move to Seattle bothered the room, and the Kraken center did not dodge it:
“Yeah, absolutely. There’s a tough rep about Seattle because it’s rainy, and maybe the city. But guys love it in Seattle — the guys that are there. When the sun’s out, it’s beautiful. There’s so much nature; there are a lot of things to do. So yeah, it obviously doesn’t feel good when you’re on a team and you try to get someone else and they don’t want to come. But at the same time, if you don’t want to be here, we don’t want you, anyway.”
The offer was enormous. Seattle put eight years at roughly $15 million per season in front of Robertson in June through a sign-and-trade with Dallas, a number that would have made him the second-highest paid player in the league at the time.
Robertson said no. He signed a one-year, $12 million deal with the Stars instead, which sends him to unrestricted free agency next summer with full control over where he lands.
Our own graphic from July stacks that swing next to the other one Seattle missed on, the four-year deal worth north of $14 million per season that Artemi Panarin turned down before he wound up in Los Angeles:
Two max-money pitches, two players who picked somewhere else. Elliotte Friedman reported both sets of terms this summer, and Pierre LeBrun laid out where the Robertson talks went once Seattle was out of it:
Lazerus also asked whether a player steering his own future like that bothers him. It does not.
“It’s up to them; it’s their decision. Every team, you want guys that want to be there. You don’t want to bring someone in that doesn’t want to be there. It just won’t work out.”
Take a look at Beniers kicking off Seattle’s week in Vegas, where the interview happened:
Seattle drafted Beniers second overall in 2021 and he has 196 points in 331 games since. He is the closest thing the franchise has to a homegrown face, which is part of why the answer carries.
The winger, meanwhile, is coming off 45 goals and 96 points and hits the open market in July. If he gets there, Seattle will have a third crack at a star who already told them no once.
