Inside look at Dallas Stars

NHL.com is providing in-depth roster, prospect and fantasy analysis for each of its 32 teams from Aug. 1-Sept. 1. Today, the Dallas Stars.

The Dallas Stars had a pretty good idea of what they were going to look like at training camp when the offseason began.

With elite forward Jason Robertson signed for another season, Dallas has a positive feeling about its possibilities.

“We’ve got great character in that dressing room. Jason Robertson's a part of that, and they made it very clear they want to be here, and that's the way we want it,” general manager Jim Nill said on July 22, one day after Robertson signed a one-year, $12 million contract as a restricted free agent.

“We hope someday that he retires here, and that's how I want it with most of these players. Now there's a business side, too, that comes into play, and we’ve got to work around that, but it says a lot about the organization.”

Robertson led the Stars with 96 points (45 goals, 51 assists) in 82 regular-season games in 2025-26 and was second on the team with eight points (five goals, three assists) in six Stanley Cup Playoff games, behind forward Matt Duchene, who had nine points (two goals, seven assists).

The 27-year-old, who re-signed just hours before his birthday, has played a big role since his rookie season in 2020-21. He was selected by Dallas in the second round (No. 39) of the 2017 NHL Draft.

“I’ve built a great career out here, and obviously throughout the summer you see where the League is going, see what happens and everything,” said Robertson, who will be eligible to sign a long-term contract with the Stars on Jan. 1, 2027. “Obviously if anything was going to work for me, just to keep reevaluating because things were happening so quickly and things are changing that going this route and seeing what happens, see what’s going to happen and reevaluate and have the time and everything, it helps along the way.

“I’m happy to be playing with them starting in September and we’ll see where it goes.”

Robertson’s contract was important business to get done, and one that has the Stars feeling much better about their potential heading into training camp next month.

“The team's pretty well set,” Nill said. “You know, I look at our team, unfortunately, we had to lose (forward) Mavrik Bourque -- a young guy coming up -- but you guys saw what he signed for. We knew it was going to be in that range somewhere, and it just wasn't going to be a fit. That's part of managing the (salary) cap. It's happened to other teams in our same situation.”

Bourque and defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin were traded to the Nashville Predators for a second-round pick in the 2027 NHL Draft and a third-round selection in the 2028 NHL Draft on July 1. Bourque then signed a six-year, $33 million contract ($5.5 million average annual value) with the Predators on July 4; Lyubushkin is entering the last season of a three-year, $9.75 million contract ($3.25 million AAV) he signed with the Stars on July 1, 2024.

Otherwise, it’s a familiar -- and, more importantly, healthy -- group returning to Dallas this season. The Stars had several injured players last season, including defenseman Lian Bichsel (out 31 games with lower-body injury) Duchene (head, out 24 games), and other key forwards in Mikko Rantanen, Tyler Seguin and Roope Hintz.

Bichsel, Duchene and Rantanen ultimately returned last season. Seguin, who tore his ACL in December and then had surgery, and Hintz, who sustained two tears in his hamstring in March, did not.

Seguin said he’s eager for training camp to begin.

“I feel deep down, I’ll be as strong as ever,” Seguin said on May 4. “It’s like going into the offseason, you have one or two lower-body days, except now you’re doing them four days a week.”

The Stars are coming off an early exit from the playoffs, losing to the Minnesota Wild in six games in the Western Conference First Round, after back-to-back trips to the conference final. They’ve been one of the perennial top teams in the NHL, and with Robertson still in the mix, the trend doesn’t have to stop.

“We’ve got a great staff, a coaching staff, a training staff, my front office staff,” Nill said. “We created a good situation here, and we have great fans.

“We’ve got to do this. It’s a great city. We’ve got great fans. It's a place that's a destination, and that's our job now, to keep it that way. That's what we hope we can continue.”