- Stars traded Mavrik Bourque and Ilya Lyubushkin to Nashville for a 2027 second and a 2028 third-round pick
- Jim Nill called the 24-year-old a “casualty of the cap world” as Dallas clears room for Jason Robertson
- Read below for the trade details and Bourque’s loyalty pledge from just weeks ago
Mavrik Bourque said he couldn’t picture himself in another jersey. Dallas found a reason anyway.
The Stars traded Bourque and defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin to the Nashville Predators on Wednesday, roughly an hour before free agency opened. Dallas got back a 2027 second-round pick and a 2028 third-rounder. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman first reported the deal.
This one comes down to money. Bourque was a restricted free agent coming off the best season of his career, and his next contract was heading somewhere Dallas couldn’t fit.
Jim Nill didn’t dress it up when he explained the move.
“Unfortunately, he’s a casualty of the cap world,” the Stars general manager said.
Bourque put up 20 goals, 21 assists and 41 points in 82 games last season. Numbers like that had him lined up for a raise, and possibly an offer sheet from a rival that Dallas would have been forced to match.
The bigger reason sits one locker over. Dallas is still trying to re-sign Jason Robertson, its leading scorer with 96 points, who remains unsigned as a restricted free agent. Robertson already turned down a proposed trade to Seattle and the eight-year, $120 million deal that came with it.
Dallas had issued qualifying offers to both players just days earlier:
Moving Lyubushkin cleared another $3.25 million off the books in the final year of his contract. The veteran blueliner had nine points in 53 games for Dallas last season.
The trade stings a little more given what Bourque said back in May. “I don’t see myself anywhere else than being a Dallas Star,” he told the Dallas Morning News, crediting the team that drafted him 30th overall in 2020.
Now he heads to Nashville, and the Stars are left hoping the freed-up cap space finally buys them Robertson’s signature.
