3 teams may need to trade for Jason Robertson before the trade deadline

Under the collective bargaining agreement that took effect on September 16, 2026, a club can sign a player to seven years only if he was on its roster at the most recent trade deadline. Every other signing is capped at six.

That rule is missing from the three destination lists already circulating about him.

Robertson signed a one-year, $12 million contract with the Dallas Stars on July 21 to avoid an arbitration hearing.

He holds no formal trade protection and becomes an unrestricted free agent next summer.

He is coming off 45 goals and 96 points in 82 games, and he turned down a reported eight-year offer near $15 million annually in a sign-and-trade to the Seattle Kraken, per Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman.

The deadline is the last day any of the other 31 clubs can become a seven-year bidder for him. Wait until the market opens and their ceiling drops to six.

At roughly $15 million a season, that extra year is about $15 million in guaranteed money free agency simply cannot match. Jim Nill's Stars keep the seven-year option either way, right up until July 1.

A deadline trade for Robertson is not a rental with two months of hockey attached. It is exclusive access to term, and that gets priced very differently than a pick and a prospect.

Kyle Dubas and the Pittsburgh Penguins held legitimate talks with Dallas this summer, and any club in that position runs into the same math in March.

Dallas can also weaponize it by refusing to move him at all, keeping the seventh year exclusive to itself.

That is the leverage nobody is pricing in yet.

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