It's no secret that the Pittsburgh Penguins have been connected to Dallas Stars forward Jason Robertson this offseason. 

Penguins general manager/president Kyle Dubas is a big fan of him and has tried to land him via trade this offseason, per multiple reports. 

Heck, just look at the way Penguins assistant general manager Jason Spezza danced around a question regarding Robertson on July. 1. 

"I won't speak directly on him, but I will tell you that we've done lots of work and inquired on lots of different players throughout our time here in the last few weeks, and we will continue to," Spezza said. "I think that's the job, and that's what we're trying to do, is to make sure we're always in on everything and understanding what's going on around the league, and where that fits into our puzzle. Jason's obviously a good player that lots of teams have interest in, and we're going to continue to investigate everything that's out there."

That's the closest you'll get an executive to say that a team has called on a certain player without fully admitting it. 

Over the weekend, Robertson was one of 15 players to file for arbitration since he's still a restricted free agent. This means that teams cannot sign him to an offer sheet. 

The Stars would like to avoid arbitration with Robertson because if he signs an arbitration deal, he would become an unrestricted free agent after next season. 

They can still look for a trade partner for him or potentially offer more money on an extension. Going off that, Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman reported on the Monday edition of 32 Thoughts that there's still a "gap" in the contract talks. The Stars are in at $12-12.5 million, while Robertson is asking for around $14 million.

Friedman then discussed how the Penguins did have some conversations with the Stars prior to Robertson filing for arbitration. 

"I think they had some conversations with Dallas about Jason Robertson," Friedman said on the podcast. "I don't know why it didn't happen, but I heard there were some pretty legitimate talks. So, I don't know if this was the Penguins' call or this was Robertson's call, and like we said earlier when we talked about Dallas, the belief is he wants to stay there. So, maybe, it was Robertson's call. I don't know."

"But, that is a potential option because I heard they had some pretty serious talks about it, and we don't know where this is going to go for Robertson in Dallas."

This is definitely a situation that the Penguins will continue to monitor throughout the offseason, especially if the Stars can't get anything done. 

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