One of the stories that won’t be going away until it does is Jason Robertson’s contract extension. And until it does, it could provide the Toronto Maple Leafs with a massive in-season trade opportunity.
Earlier this summer, the Dallas Stars avoided a massive meltdown by inking Robertson to a one-year, $12 million deal. The contract was evidently a stopgap aimed at buying more time to work out a definitive contract extension.
That’s the plan. That’s what should happen. But until it does, there will be plenty of speculation about the Stars potentially trading the 26-year-old. Hence, the Maple Leafs should have an opportunity.
Before proceeding, it would be tough for the Leafs to pull off this deal. It will require a solid amount of trade capital to make it work. But it’s not impossible for Toronto to make it happen.
So, what would it take to bring in Robertson?
The sticker price would be a first-round pick, a high-end prospect, and other picks/roster players. That’s what the Stars would likely want from the Maple Leafs, and it’s a price tag that the Leafs may not be able to afford.
Perhaps the Stars would go for a deal involving Matthew Knies. But trading Knies for Robertson would sort of defeat the purpose of the deal in the first place. Unless Toronto wanted to get rid of Knies, swapping wingers just doesn’t make sense.
Then, there’s the matter of the contract extension.
Could Maple Leafs Sign Robertson to the Deal He Wants?
Everyone knows what the floor for Robertson’s contract extension was this summer. The brother of former Maple Leafs’ draft pick Nick Robertson turned down a $15 million AAV deal from the Seattle Kraken.
The mystery lies in not really knowing why Robertson didn’t agree to that contract. And by reneging on the extension, the purported Kraken-Stars deal fell through.
It’s also known that the Stars aren’t too comfortable with the idea of going to $15 million per season. The organization wants to keep Robertson’s contract as close to Mikko Rantanen’s as possible. But what if the Maple Leafs were willing to do that? What if Toronto was comfortable with signing Robertson to a, say, seven-year, $15 million AAV deal? Would that be enough to get it done? It certainly seems like a good starting point.
What to read next:
Dallas Could Be Willing to Play Ball When Time Runs Out
The one thing to keep in mind is that if Dallas essentially runs out of time. That’s not the case now. The Stars won’t be willing to trade Robertson now that they’ve just avoided a meltdown.
But that may not be the case if Robertson remains unsigned by the 2027 NHL trade deadline. That’s where the price tag could come down. And that’s a point where John Chayka can throw his hat in the ring and see what happens.
In about six months, this trade might not seem like much of a long shot. It might actually become much more feasible than it seems today.
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