Under Maintenance
We deeply apologize for interrupting your reading but Vendetta is currently undergoing some important maintenance! You may experience some layout shifts, slow loading times and dififculties in navigating.
Jason Robertson is in a small bracket of players in the NHL. A lethal scorer who is also capable of a 200-foot game. For reference, in the last four years the 25-year-old has a 39 goal and 89 point scoring pace per 82 games. Those types of guys don’t grow on trees.
Yes, he had some rough patches in the playoffs. That 89-point pace dips down to 64 in the playoffs. Regardless, let JFresh show you the kind of player we are dealing with:
It is just nonsensical to trade a guy who is entering his prime and has already scored for fun in the NHL. If memory serves, the Oilers have knocked Dallas out the last two years in a row. Furthermore, before then, Edmonton was fed their lunch by the Golden Knights in 2023 and Avs before them. Something those two teams had was a physical element and scoring on all four lines. As Trey wrote earlier, the Jeff Marek podcast is very insightful. Adding a guy like Mathieu Joseph would work wonders for Dallas.
However, why don’t you give this group at least one more year? Robertson is an RFA, and you could still get a healthy return for his rights in a trade. Even so, I doubt he wants to leave Dallas. He knows how much money goes off the table if he leaves a tax haven like this. Give Mikko Rantanen and the whole gang an entire offseason to recover and work together. The only change Jim Nill should be considering is behind the bench. The Pete DeBoer effect is clogging the locker room, and he should be shown the door before it gets any worse.
Of course, one of the main free agents the Stars must bring back is captain Jamie Benn. He does not see himself being anywhere else. However, he must take a considerable discount for that to become true. Like less than half of the $9.5 million the Stars paid him for eight years. If he can do that, and Nill finds a trade partner for, say, Mason Marchment and his $4.5 million cap hit, then the whole group can absolutely stay together. Bumping Robertson up to $11 million per fits in line nicely with Rantanen’s $12 million AAV. Like Trey said, Marek knows what he’s talking about. I don’t think he would mention a Robertson trade if he hadn’t heard murmurs about it.
However, it just goes against everything Jim Nill has built to move him out. Any trade assets you could get back would not replace what he offers you. 40 goals and 90 points in a player are so hard to come by in this league. Why just willingly trade one of those away when loading up on scoring is the way to put up a fight against the Oilers?
If I can leave you with one thing, it’s the article embedded above. Dallas has a lot of the pieces of the puzzle. Two legit #1 centers in Wyatt Johnston and Roope Hintz. Game breaking wingers in Robertson and Rantanen. A left side of defense that can skate and hold their own (need a righty or two to balance it out). A highly paid goalie in Oettinger, but he is drafted and developed in-house, so maybe not as bad.
Jim Nill, don’t take a step back. Keep using your tax advantage and don’t trade Jason Robertson. I cannot believe this is even a conversation.
Subscribe to Vendetta’s Twitch
Check out Vendetta Fantasy Contests
Subscribe to Vendetta’s YouTube
Click here for more NHL content