I’ve written a few pieces this offseason about the Dallas Stars and how the Philadelphia Flyers should look into either trading for or sending an offer sheet to forward Mavrik Bourque because of their salary cap situation. As it turns out, the Stars are looking at bigger and bolder moves, and that includes possibly jettisoning 26-year-old forward Jason Robertson in exchange for cap flexibility and draft picks.
The Flyers have to start taking advantage of other team’s salary cap woes considering they have a lot of flexibility over the next 3+ years and have a plethora of draft picks that they probably won’t be using to it’s entirety. With the Stars having been ousted in the Conference Finals for the third straight year and only carrying $4.96 million in cap space this summer, a major move is coming and it’s sounding like it could be Robertson.
Even with the salary cap jumping to $95 million for the 2025-26 season, the Stars have less than $5 million in cap space and captain Jamie Benn, Cody Ceci, Matt Duchene, and Mikael Granlund are pending UFAs and Bourque is a pending RFA.
Mikko Rantanen’s cap hit jumps by almost $10 million with his extension kicking in next year and then the rest of their core players in Roope Hintz, Wyatt Johnston, Miro Heiskanen, and Jake Oettinger are locked up for the foreseeable future at a combined rate of $33.55 million.
Their issues lie with Tyler Seguin’s $9.85 million cap hit for the next 2 seasons and Robertson and Thomas Harley needing a raise and new contracts in 2026. They only have 8 forwards signed through next season and while they could look to move off of contracts like Mathew Dumba and Ilya Lyubushkin, it’s a lot easier said than done.
Moving Robertson makes sense considering what they’re looking for and the Flyers have both in excess. What also helps the Flyers is that Robertson is only about to turn 26-years-old at the end of July and while he only has one year remaining on his $7.75 million contract, he will be an RFA, which gives them a lot more leeway.
For Dallas, it might be hard to move off of players like Duchene and Granlund after how impactful they have both been in their short time with the team. Factoring in their window and how close they’ve come in three straight seasons, they need to go as all-in as possible and that could come at the cost of Robertson.
The former second round pick from the 2017 NHL Entry Draft burst onto the scene during the COVID-shortened 2020-21 season when he was a rookie and finished the year with 45 points in 51 games. He then improved to the tune of 41 goals and 79 points in 74 games in 2021-22 before exploding for 46 goals and 109 points in 82 games in 2022-23.
He hasn’t exactly matched those lofty numbers since but has scored successive 80-point seasons and hasn’t missed a regular season game since 2021-22. He did get injured during the last game of the season, which forced him to miss the entirety of Dallas’ first round matchup against Colorado.
Through parts of 6 seasons – 5 in full – Robertson has 168 goals and 394 points in 374 games to go along with a +95, 45 power play goals, 18:02 ATOI, a 15.2% shooting percentage, and 214 takeaways. He finished 2nd in voting for the Calder Trophy in 2020-21, 4th in league voting for the Hart Trophy in 2022-23, and has previously received Selke Trophy and Lady Byng votes as well.
For his efforts during the last three Conference Finals runs, Robertson has scored 17 goals and 40 points in 49 games, which included 18 points in 2023 and 16 points in 2024. Playing through injuries this spring, he only added 4 goals and 6 points in 11 games but he scored all his goals in the final 3 games of the series.
The Flyers would be more than lucky to get their hands on this type of talent and to be able to pair him up with Matvei Michkov for years to come. While they have holes down the middle, those needs can be met in the draft or through various other deals, but with cost of Robertson being cap flexIbility and draft picks, that is something that the Flyers have to bud in front of the line for.
Adjusting for the extensions of Tyson Foerster and Noah Cates, the Flyers have $18,991,905 in cap space this year with just Jakob Pelletier and Cam York remaining. They are projected to have $49.9 million next year when the cap rises to $104 million and $77.85 million in cap space when it jumps to $113.5 millions in 2027.
The Flyers only have 10 players signed through the 2026-27 season and that number shrinks to just 6 going into the 2027-28 season. Of course that number will drastically change over the course of the next year or two when they extend certain players, trade for or sign players, or perhaps even subtract some more. However, it shows the great work done by the front office to position themselves for moves of this calibre.
As for draft compensation, the Flyers have three 1st round picks, four 2nd round picks, two 5th round picks, and one each in the 3rd and 6th rounds in 2025. They have one pick in each round outside of the 5th in 2026 and then have two 1st and 3rd round picks to go along with one pick in the 2nd, 4th, 5th, and 7th rounds in 2027.
The Flyers’ 6th overall pick is probably off the table but some combination of their other firsts and seconds could work. They can add in a roster player if need be but from the sounds of things, draft compensation might be the key to getting a trade done if Dallas wants more cap flexibility.
When the first batch of rumours came out about the Flyers balking at Minnesota Wild forward Marco Rossi for a late first round pick, many ridiculed and questioned the Flyers motives. It later came out that it would be the starting point of the discussion but Rossi’s contract demands also threw off several executives, including Brière and company.
Many speculated that maybe the Flyers were holding off of moving a late first round pick for something else or something bigger – and maybe that is a move for Robertson?
Dallas probably won’t come out and say that they’re going to move Robertson to save face and keep leverage in any trade talks, but the rumours seem as good as true with reputable sources backing them up like Jeff Marek. This is a situation the Flyers can’t ignore and considering how confident they are of coming out of the rebuild soon, a Robertson trade will not throw their plans of kilter.
To be able to run with Robertson, Michkov, Foerster, and Travis Konecny is a fantastic start, while also having Owen Tippett, Bobby Brink, and prospects like Denver Barkey and Alex Bump waiting and developing. A point-per-game winger is out there and the Flyers can’t let this slip through the cracks.
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