Why Did Nobody Offer Sheet, Jason Robertson?
Every team in the NHL made a mistake by not giving Jason Robertson a Godfather offer this offseason. Maybe it’s the hidden code around the league to just not do it. Kelly McCrimmon talked about why players don’t get offer sheeted more. That could easily be the case. However, I’d argue if the rest of the league knew Robertson was THIS good, it would be worth breaking the imaginary code for. Something I would have done if given the keys to one of these teams.
Robertson, 23, has 57 points in 41 games including a team high 28 goals. His CF% is up to 63.7. Just an insane number. Robertson is one of the best players in the league. Robo has been on my fantasy hockey team for three consecutive years. Robertson is a super duper star. The rest of the league just happened to find out two years later than I did.
In a column I dropped before the start of the season, I talked about how I would move mountains in order to acquire the Stars’ young winger. Dallas was also totally trapped. After the Tage Thompson extension number came in, it looked like the Stars wouldn’t be able to re-sign him either. In fact, Dallas had to put Anton Khudobin on waivers to scrounge up enough cap space to even get the Robertson bridge deal done.
I knew this at the time and now the rest of the world found out the hard way. Robertson is on a dirt-cheap deal and the rest of the NHL let it happen. Wouldn’t have been the case on my watch. Dallas either would have either traded Robertson to my team or I would have come down with an offer sheet they wouldn’t have been able to match. Similar to what happened with the Kevin Fiala situation. The Kings knew Minnesota couldn’t match their offer so the two sides worked out a trade.
At what point do we acknowledge that maybe these teams should start sending offer sheets in? Who cares if the team wants to seek revenge? Let them do it. Carolina harmed themselves by signing that Jesperi Kotkaniemi contract. It’s time for teams to start learning their lessons or give me the keys. Either one is fine.
Jason Robertson is a tank and it’s about time this man gets the respect he deserves.
