The Dallas Stars have been the talk of the town with the several day break between the Western Conference Final and the Stanley Cup Final. Whether the narrative is that head coach, Pete DeBoer, should be fired for pulling Jake Oettinger in Game 5 or that the Stars are thinking about trading Jason Robertson for cap space, the rumors are spreading like wild fire. 

The Stars have just under $5 million dollars to work with going into the 2025-26 season while only having eight forwards and six defensemen signed. Jamie Benn, Matt Duchene, Evgenii Dadonov, Mikael Granlund, Colin Blackwell, Brendan Smith and Cody Ceci as pending unrestricted free agents. Nils Lundkvist and Mavrik Bourque are the team's only restricted free agents. 

While some cap gymnastics will have to be done to even fill out a complete roster. And not to mention general manager, Jim Nill, already stated previously he would like to bring back Benn and Duchene, if anyone is going to figure it out, it is the cap wizard himself. With that being said, there are moves to be made. Matt Dumba, who carries a cap hit of $3.75 million through the next season.

Dumba did not play a single game during the Stars playoff run. Instead, the Stars opted to roll with rookie, Lian Bichsel, and veteran AHL player, Alexander Petrovic, who played the whole regular season with the Texas Stars. To anyone on the outside, that seems pretty indicative on where they stand with the 30 year-old defenseman. 

Another move, while perhaps not as favorable for the Stars, is moving Mason Marchment to free up his $4.5 million dollar cap hit. He has one more year on his four-year contract. Although, Marchment has been part of the very successful line with Duchene and Tyler Seguin, holds a pretty big cap hit that would be beneficial for the Stars to free themselves of, given their current situation. 

Last but not least, Ilya Lyubushkin, was also one of the free agency acquisitions that found himself on the bench as the playoffs went on while Bichsel and Petrovic were rolled on the third pairing once Miro Heiskanen returned from injury. Lyubushkin's cap hit is $3.25 million through the next two seasons. Though, it might be worth keeping one of the right-handed defensemen they spent a lot of money to get last summer.

With all of that being said, none of this really affects Robertson or his next contract. Robertson has one more year of his $7.5 million dollar cap hit. Going into the 2026-27 season, Dallas will have over 35 million dollars to accommodate the pay raise Robertson will be getting between the cap going up and players like Seguin with big cap hits coming off the books. Sure, if the Stars trade Robertson over the summer, they gain $7.5 million dollars for the upcoming season, but they are now missing a consistent 80+ point player. 

All in all, the Stars would be very hard pressed to find a return in a trade involving Robertson where they come away with anything of the same value. The Stars are cap strapped going into the next season, but Robertson is not the place they need to be looking for relief. 

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