CHICAGO — The Dallas Stars intend to let the opening stretch of the season breathe before turning their attention to Jason Robertson’s next contract. General manager Jim Nill said Saturday that he plans to begin talks with the forward’s representatives around the start of December, with the club looking to keep business away from the day-to-day rhythm of the room.
“I don’t want any distraction,” Nill said before Dallas met the Chicago Blackhawks at United Center. “Just get off to a good start and I’ll sit down with his representatives around the first of December, see if we can get something done.”
Robertson is playing this season on a one-year, $12 million deal signed July 21 after he reached restricted free agency and avoided salary arbitration. The 27-year-old will be eligible to put pen to paper on a longer-term agreement beginning Jan. 1, 2027.
Dallas entered Saturday’s game at 3-3-1, but the early skid has given way to a steadier stretch. The Stars had gone 3-1-1 over their previous five contests after dropping their first two games of the campaign. Robertson had two goals and three assists through seven games, while the club continues to look for its full five-on-five game.
The winger is not treating seven games as a meaningful contract or production checkpoint. His focus remains on the next few weeks, when the Stars should have a clearer picture of both their team identity and individual starts.
“At the start of the season all I can think about is getting the season going, getting a rhythm,” Robertson said. “I think after 20 games is when you start to understand.”
He said the first 10 games are largely about settling in, while the 20-game mark offers players a more useful opportunity to assess where their season stands. Until then, Robertson said, the group is concentrating on reaching that first-quarter point.
Robertson remains central to Dallas’ plans
There is little mystery about Robertson’s value to the Stars. He led Dallas last season with 96 points, scoring 45 goals and adding 51 assists across 82 games. The goal total was one short of his personal best of 46, set in 2022-23. He also produced five goals and three assists in six playoff games before Dallas was knocked out by the Minnesota Wild in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs.
Picked 39th overall in the second round of the 2017 NHL Draft, Robertson has grown into one of the franchise’s top offensive drivers. He owns 215 goals and 280 assists for 495 points in 463 regular-season games, along with 23 goals and 29 assists in 62 postseason appearances.
When he agreed to the one-year arrangement in July, Robertson made clear that Dallas remained a meaningful place for him, calling it the organization where his NHL career began. He also pointed to a rapidly changing League landscape and said the shorter deal gave him time to see how circumstances developed before revisiting the bigger picture.
For now, that larger conversation can wait. Nill’s timetable gives the Stars and Robertson roughly another month of hockey before contract discussions move back onto the agenda.
