Dallas Stars Are Running Out of Cap Room and an Insider Says the Panic Is Overblown

The Dallas Stars have a problem. Actually they have a few of them. The cap is tight. They just traded away a couple of players for draft picks. And their best young forward, Jason Robertson, is still unsigned and just filed for arbitration. Meanwhile nobody in Dallas is hitting the panic button the way the internet might think.

NHL insider Greg Wyshynski poured some cold water on the idea that the Stars are in free agency trouble. He wrote for ESPN that while the situation is frustrating, calling it disastrous is a reach. The team still has Mikko Rantanen, Miro Heiskanen and Jake Oettinger. Those are the guys who carried Dallas to back-to-back conference finals appearances. Add in the fact they finished third in the entire league last year and it starts to look less like a collapse and more like a bad month at the office.

Robertson’s contract standoff is the real story here

The 23-year-old forward put up 45 goals and 96 points last season. He’s been a 40-goal guy three times already. Losing him would hurt. But Wyshynski pointed out that general manager Jim Nill kind of fumbled this one. Robertson has been in trade rumors for a year and the front office clearly misjudged the leverage. The player filed for arbitration which is usually a sign that talks have gotten ugly. Still the Stars have enough depth to survive if he sits out a few games or even gets moved.

Trading a guy with those numbers is never easy. But Nill may not have a choice if he can’t clear enough cap space to get a deal done. The Stars already sent Mavrik Bourque and Ilya Lyubushkin to Nashville for picks. That clears some room but not enough for a Robertson extension at the number he wants.

Dallas got bounced in the first round this spring by the Minnesota Wild despite having home ice advantage. That stung. But the roster that got them there is mostly intact. Rantanen is still a Hart Trophy candidate. Heiskanen is one of the best defensemen in the league. Oettinger can steal a series on his own. The pieces are there.

What the Stars don’t have is the cap flexibility to make big moves. That makes every negotiation harder and every rumor louder. But Wyshynski summed it up pretty well: it’s embarrassing but not catastrophic. The talent is still in the building. The question is whether Nill can fix the cap mess before it costs them a real shot next spring.