Dallas Stars sign Jason Robertson to four year contract

The Dallas Stars have signed star winger Jason Robertson to a four year contract with a $7.75 million cap hit.

Robertson was a restricted free agent heading into the regular season without a deal after finishing his entry-level contract. He’ll make most of the money in the final three seasons, with just a $1.5 million salary and $3 million signing bonus in year one, followed by salaries of $8 million, $9.2 million, and $9.3 million in the other three seasons, according to PuckPedia. The closest comparables for the cap hit of his new deal are Sean Couturier and another young winger in Andrei Svechnikov.

The deal comes in cheaper than expected as the contract doesn’t eat up any UFA years, so Robertson will still be an RFA when this contract expires. As Matthew Tkachuk showed us with his $9.5 million megadeal earlier in the offseason, RFAs one year away still have plenty of leverage.

Robertson is coming off an excellent 2021-22 campaign, finishing above a point-per-game with 41 goals, 38 assists, and 79 points in 74 games on a dynamic line with Roope Hintz and Joe Pavelski. This was after an impressive rookie season where he had 45 points in 51 games, and finished second in Calder voting to Kirill Kaprizov.

Along with great point totals, Robertson is also one of the best play-drivers in the league. He finished the 2021-22 season with a 55.84% shot attempt share and 59.63% expected goal share at even strength, a lot of that due to his offensive abilities, as he ranked 36th among forwards in shot attempts for per 60 minutes and 19th in expected goals for per 60 minutes. His defense isn’t quite as strong, but it’s passable and he more than makes up for it with his offense.

With this signing, the Stars now have all of their contracts taken care of going into the season, with both Robertson and goaltender Jake Oettinger being their biggest concerns on the RFA front. They also added Mason Marchment to their forward group, as well as Colin Miller on the back end as they look to build on a strong seven game series against the Calgary Flames.