The Dallas Stars are turning their attention to Jason Robertson after signing Thomas Harley to that eight-year extension carrying an AAV of $10.587 million per season. Stars GM Jim Nill knows he has money to play with as the salary cap will go up to $104 million next season and $113 million the following season.
Nill wants to keep Robertson and sees him as part of the future in Dallas. However, he will be an RFA with arbitration rights. We all know how those arbitrator negotiations go. The Dallas Stars don’t want it to get to that point.
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However, as discussed on The Sheet between Dave Pagnotta of the Fourth Period and Jeff Marek, could Jason Robertson’s next AAV be under Mikko Rantanen‘s $12 million, which is the benchmark, as the Stars are using Rantanen as the high point of the internal salary cap?
NHLRumors.com Transcriptions
Jeff Marek: “One complicating factor for Dallas here is that the player is arbitration-eligible, and you know what happens in arbitration generally? I mean, listen, players can really get a windfall here in arbitration, and that’s why I don’t know that the Dallas Stars want to get that far, given that they seem to have a forward ceiling of $12 million with Mikko Rantanen. And look, Jason Robertson could ring the bell going to our arbitration. Full stop.
How much is the Rantanen contract a mitigating factor and all for Robertson? He’ll be 27 when this contract starts. I know that Dallas isn’t exactly thrilled with long-term contracts for players, long-term contracts for players late in their 20s, but the RFA status with the hammer and also the internal cap of Rantanen?”
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Dave Pagnotta: “Rantanen has more of an impact, or that contract has more of an impact on these types of discussions with related with regards, excuse me, to Robertson for a number of reasons. One, that contract was done recently. That was done, obviously, last year, and with that was of the understanding of how the trend was going with respect to the salary cap.
But I think the Rantanen deal has more of an impact with respect to negotiations in terms of number plateaus and things of that line, and that’s also its complicated things to a certain extent, in terms of just not getting it done already. Because how many guys are going to have eight figures moving forward on the same roster, even though the caps are jumping up, and even though there’s more money to spend?
And Tom Gaglardi, the owner, is not afraid to dish out the money for it. But how many guys? You have to be responsible. How many guys are going to be in the eight figures, and then how much and how high in the eight figures for the immediate future? That’s a factor for both of these guys, because these could easily both be, and likely will be, eight-figure deals on AAVs.
The Stars have $28 million in cap space next year as of now, on the projected numbers, that’s still a lot of room to play with for the bulk of the roster, not just these two.”
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However, it is not just the Rantanen deal now. It is the Martin Necas deal: $11.5 million per season over eight years. The Kyle Connor deal in Winnipeg is the Rantanen deal of eight years at $12 million per season. Logan Cooley of the Utah Mammoth just got $10.5 million per season over an eight-year deal coming out of entry-level.
The Stars want to keep Jason Robertson. Not only will it come down to what Mikko Rantanen gets, but also to which other contracts get signed between now and whenever Robertson signs.
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