Maple Leafs, Mitch Marner provide blueprint for Stars, Jason Robertson

Maple Leafs, Mitch Marner provide blueprint for Stars, Jason Robertson originally appeared on The Sporting News.
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The Toronto Maple Leafs could give the Dallas Stars all sorts of insight into how this might work out.

Mitch Marner last offseason feels a lot like Jason Robertson is feeling right about now.

Robertson is a bit different, as a restricted free agent and not unrestricted like Marner was going to be.

But given that the Stars don’t have a lot of cap room, this could function similarly.

The Maple Leafs got the sense that Marner wasn’t coming back, so they negotiated a sign-and-trade to send him to the Vegas Golden Knights. They received Nicolas Roy in return for their troubles (and eventually turned Roy into a first-round pick in a deadline deal).

The Stars can do their best to learn from that.

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Of course, they’d prefer not to lose Robertson, but rumors seem to have the Ottawa Senators circulating either via trade or a huge offer sheet.

The least Dallas can do is find a way to make this a sign-and-trade and get something in return for Robertson.

The talented winger just put up 45 goals and 51 assists for a 96-point season, which is remarkable. That’s not a player you want to lose for nothing.

The Stars haven’t handled their salary cap well enough to keep room for the salary Robertson will likely demand, which means he could end up with a different organization.

Dallas would be wise to at least make sure they get a sign-and-trade out of the situation to get some asset in return for losing Robertson, just like the Maple Leafs did with Marner.

As the Marner situation showed, this can still work out poorly, but it’d be worth if the star player left for nothing.

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