The Dallas Stars' salary cap situation for the 2026-27 season is a complex one, with a current cap charge of $105,360,333 and a cap space of -$1,360,333. The team has an in-house pathway to getting into cap compliance at the start of the season, and they don't have to make a trade to free up money if they don't want to. The team's expiring contracts include RFA D Lian Bichsel, UFA F Oskar Back, F Jamie Benn, F Colin Blackwell, G Casey DeSmith, F Joel Kiviranta, D Tyler Myers, F Jason Robertson, F Tyler Seguin, and F Sam Steel. Robertson is the big one, and the team settled on this deal to avoid arbitration. The next deal will cost more, and the team will need to afford it. Injuries have been an issue for Seguin the last two years, but he has still been productive when he has played. A deal in the $5MM range is possible, or he could sign a one-year deal with incentives moving forward. Steel keeps getting a little more productive each year and has become a capable middle-six piece. The market for those centers has jumped to a price tag around double what he’s making now. Benn will reach $600K of his bonuses if he plays in 40 games, and $150K if the Stars make the playoffs. If he wants to stay in Dallas after this season, it’ll probably need to be another contract like this. Back is a late bloomer but fared well in a fourth-line role last season. A repeat performance could put him in line to double his current price tag. Kiviranta signed this deal last month and it seems likely he’ll stay around this price point moving forward. The same can be said for Blackwell. DeSmith has been quite solid in his first two seasons in Dallas, and his market value should change. Two years ago, he was more of a low-end backup, but now, he has played like an above-average one. With that in mind, he should be able to double this price tag at a minimum while tripling it on a short-term deal isn’t out of the question. For the 2027-28 season, the projected upper limit is $113.5MM, and the team should be able to afford to keep Robertson around. That will result in them needing to have several low-priced contracts to round out their roster after re-signing Bichsel and a couple of the others. The team's expiring contracts include D Kyle Capobianco, F Radek Faksa, F Justin Hryckowian, F Arttu Hyry, and D Nils Lundkvist. Faksa’s offensive production has been rather limited for a while now, and it’s hard to forecast a big raise for him, even with the big jumps coming to the cap. Hryckowian’s first full NHL season was a solid one, and a price tag around the $3.5MM mark could be doable. Hyry, on the other hand, is more of a depth piece who should stay somewhat close to the minimum salary. Lundkvist hasn’t progressed a lot over his four years in Dallas while injuries have been an issue. He’s more of a number six option in an ideal world and will need to stay healthy at a minimum if he wants a shot at getting the bigger money that third-pairing blueliners are starting to get. Capobianco has bounced between being a depth piece and AHL depth in recent years which should keep him around the minimum salary as well. For the 2028-29 season, the forecasted upper limit is $123MM, and the team will have no significant contracts to deal with from their 2028 free agent class. The team's expiring contracts include F Matt Duchene and D Miro Heiskanen. Duchene left some money on the table to get a four-year deal from Dallas, one that ultimately might be his final contract as he’ll be 38 before the deal ends. If not, he’s another candidate to go one year at a time from there. If he intends to keep playing, his market value might still be a little higher than this, even if his production starts to tick down. Heiskanen, on the other hand, is going to be a big one to contend with when his deal is up for renewal. An all-situations top-pairing player, he’s already quite a bargain on their books. The veteran will be 30 at the end of this contract. Given where the market appears to be heading, it’s quite possible that Heiskanen could command a max-term agreement (which will be seven years at this point instead of the current eight) at double his current price tag. A shorter-term pact could even run a little higher than that. At this point, Heiskanen will quite likely become the highest-paid player on the Stars should he ultimately sign another contract with them, beating out whatever Robertson’s next deal will be. For the 2029-30 season, the forecasted upper limit is $133.5MM, and the team will have no significant contracts to deal with from their 2029 free agent class. The team's expiring contracts include F Wyatt Johnston and D Esa Lindell. Johnston has shown steady improvement and produced like a top-line center last season. Still just 23, there’s room for improvement as well. He should be hitting UFA eligibility in his prime and with the cap being much higher then than it is now, it’s certainly possible that he can double his current price tag on his next contract as well. Lindell, meanwhile, will be 36 when this contract expires. While he’s a big minute-eater now, will that still be the case in 2030? If so, a short-term deal could come in several million higher than this. If not, however, and he’s more of a fourth option, he could still get a modest raise but at that point, term might be more important than anything else. Lindell is a valuable player but his limited production offensively doesn’t give him as much earning potential as others. Signed For 2030-31 And Beyond: D Thomas Harley, F Roope Hintz, G Jake Oettinger, and F Mikko Rantanen. Rantanen couldn’t agree to terms on a new deal in Colorado and didn’t want to in Carolina but he quickly did with the Stars. Recent movement market-wise will have this deal more on the team-friendly side before long as long as he keeps producing like a top liner as he should for several more years. Hintz, when healthy, is a solid second center but lacks the production to be a top-line pivot. Even so, he should be well-positioned to add several million per season to his current price tag when his deal is up. Harley signed this deal early last season on the heels of two high-end performances that made him look like a top-pairing core piece for the long haul. Things didn’t go so well last season to the point he was nearly traded for Zach Werenski this offseason but at 24, there’s plenty of runway for him to turn things around. Relative to last season, this deal may be on the high side now but given that all of his prime years are ahead of him, that should change fairly quickly. Oettinger has been a solid starter for the past half-decade although he’s coming off more of a mediocre campaign, especially by his standards. If that’s the level of play moving forward, this contract would be a concern. But given his overall track record, that’s unlikely to be the case and he’ll get back to at least being a solid starter. With the way the goalie prices are starting to rise, this deal should age just fine. Outlook: By going one year with Robertson, they will have a much better shot at keeping him around long term when he becomes extension-eligible in January. But there is a fairly limited window for Nill to try to add a key piece, that being the 2028 offseason when the cap ceiling rises without any big expiring contracts. After that point, any increases to the Upper Limit are going to be spent on re-signing their top pieces to new market-value deals.
