- Frank Seravalli reports Dallas is actively shopping Ilya Lyubushkin to open up cap space
- The room is for Jason Robertson, an RFA whose next deal projects north of $12 million a year
- Read below for the cap math, Lyubushkin’s shrinking role, and Jim Nill’s window before the draft
The Stars have a winger to pay and not enough room to do it cleanly.
Frank Seravalli reports that Dallas is actively shopping defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin as it tries to clear cap space for a Jason Robertson extension.
Robertson is the bigger domino. He is a pending restricted free agent coming off 45 goals and 96 points, and his next contract is expected to land north of $12 million a year. Dallas insiders have pointed toward a deal getting done all offseason.
He just made the league’s First Team All-Star, too:
The money is the problem. PuckPedia has the Stars at about $10.14 million in space for next season, so Jim Nill has to move salary before he can hand Robertson a raise that big.
Lyubushkin is the cleanest cut. He carries a $3.25 million cap hit on the final year of his deal, and he has no trade protection to get in the way.
His role shrank, too. After dressing for 80 games his first year in Dallas, the right-shot defenseman played just 53 last season. That is a steep price for a depth piece who is not always in the lineup.
Losing him would not hurt much. The Stars still have Miro Heiskanen, Thomas Harley, and Nils Lundkvist on the back end, and they can bring back Alexander Petrovic on the cheap if they need bodies.
Catch all 45 of Robertson’s goals from this season, the kind of production Dallas is fighting to keep:
The draft runs June 26 and 27, and Nill’s window to clear space is open now. Moving Lyubushkin for a pick would be the simplest way to get the Robertson extension across the line.
