Dallas Stars and Buffalo Sabres

Dallas General Manager Wants To Keep Jason Robertson

The Dallas Stars made a splash last year at the trade deadline when they acquired Mikko Rantanen from the Carolina Hurricanes. Dallas General Manager Jim Nill, who won his third consecutive Jim Gregory Award as GM of the Year, signed Rantaen to an eight-year extension carrying a cap hit of $12 million.

Once that happened, rumours began about Jason Robertson being shipped out of town because the Stars couldn’t make the money work under the salary cap. However, Nill has been adamant despite talks being slow that he wants to keep Robertson. That has been his goal.

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Nill reiterated that fact that he wanted to extend Robertson, having just signed Rantanen to that massive extension, as he told Scott Oake on Hockey Night in Canada After Hours after the Stars fell to the Calgary Flames 3-2 in a shootout.

“Yeah, that’s the plan. We’ll find a way to do it. We’ve always kind of found ways. These are great players. It’s hard to find goal scorers, and that’s what, when I talked to Jason over the summer, I said. He had a tough year the year before. He missed all of the training camp and got off to a slow start. So that’s what we discussed this summer. Come in, I want you to have a good year. It’s an Olympic year for him, too. Lots of things are going on, and he is performing for us, and it’s great.”

Robertson is a restricted free agent this summer for the Dallas Stars. So Nill is not worried as he is controllable. On the season, Robertson has 28 points (13 goals and 15 assists) in 22 games. Over his last seven games, Robertson has 15 points (10 goals and five assists).

So expect Jim Nill to work his magic and lock up Robertson long-term, as Dallas views him as a core piece moving forward.

No Trades Coming With The Standings So Tight

With the Eastern Conference standings so tight and no team really out of it, don’t expect much in terms of moves coming from the Buffalo Sabres, as Dave Pagnotta of the Fourth Period told Scott Laughlin and Gord Stellick on Sirius XM NHL Network on Monday morning when asked about the trade market and Buffalo.

NHLRumors.com Transcriptions

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Dave Pagnotta: “As you said, I mean, it’s so tight in the East right now. I mean, Toronto’s last and they’re, what, four points out of a playoff spot? The Sabres and the (New York) Rangers tied as well at 22. Three points out. Like, everything is so tight right now. So there’s a level of like, nobody’s out of it. Nobody feels like they’re out of it, even though the skies may be falling in some markets one day, they pick up a win the next day, it’s like, oh, you know what? Maybe this isn’t so bad.

So, no one feels like they’re fully out of it just yet. And that’s why with Buffalo, there’s been so much what’s going on with Alex Tuch, and are they going to sign him? Are they going to look to move him, and what’s going to happen? It’s still so early for the Sabres in the season, here at the quarter mark, that they still want to see what they’ve gotten. Can they go on a run? Can they piece things together? Can they build off of what UPL and (Tage) Thompson are doing, and so on?”

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