The Dallas Stars and Jason Robertson found the exit ramp before driving straight into a salary arbitration hearing nobody wanted to sit through. The team announced a one-year, $12 million contract Tuesday night — one day before Robertson’s 27th birthday and roughly two and a half weeks after the forward had filed for arbitration as a restricted free agent.
The deal ties a bow on a standoff that had started to smell like week-old gym socks. Robertson’s $12 million salary for 2026-27 matches Mikko Rantanen for the highest on the roster. Rantanen completed the first season of the $96 million, eight-year extension he signed to facilitate the deadline trade that brought him from Carolina to Dallas in March 2025.
“Jason has been a cornerstone of our franchise since he was drafted in 2017,” Stars general manager Jim Nill said. “A dynamic and skilled player, he has been one of the league’s top offensive threats since making his NHL debut.”
The one-year structure means Robertson can become an unrestricted free agent for the first time next summer. Per Elliotte Friedman, he becomes eligible to sign a maximum seven-year extension with Dallas starting January 1, 2027. So the bridge is built — but nobody’s crossed it yet.
The backdrop here is thicker than a pregame steak. Nill acknowledged at the conclusion of the NHL draft that the Stars had a sign-and-trade deal in place to send Robertson to Seattle for the seventh overall pick. Robertson couldn’t formally veto that trade, but he refused to agree to a long-term deal with the Kraken — a reported $120 million over eight years, $15 million a season. Without a contract commitment from the player, the trade framework collapsed. Robertson bet on himself, and now he’s staying in Dallas for at least one more year at $12 million rather than taking $15 million annually to pack for the Pacific Northwest.
That’s a man who likes where he eats.
Robertson earned the leverage. He led the Stars with 96 points (45 goals, 51 assists) in 2025-26, his third 40-goal season. He has 490 points (213 goals, 277 assists) across 456 regular-season games — all with Dallas, which drafted him 39th overall in the second round in 2017. He played every single one of the team’s 328 regular-season games over the past four seasons, producing 365 points in that span. His career best came in 2022-23, when he racked up 109 points.
The contract closes the book on a $31 million, four-year deal Robertson signed in 2022. The next chapter — whether it’s written in Dallas or somewhere else — doesn’t start until January 2027 at the earliest.
Sources:
- Sportsnet — Stars, Jason Robertson avoid arbitration with one-year deal
- Yahoo Sports / USA Today — Jason Robertson contract standoff with Dallas Stars ends
- Yahoo Sports / AP — Jason Robertson signs $12 million deal with Dallas Stars to avoid arbitration hearing