{"id":564659,"date":"2026-05-02T01:57:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T01:57:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/564659\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T01:57:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T01:57:21","slug":"stars-free-agency-breakdown-which-players-will-jim-nill-be-tasked-with-re-signing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/564659\/","title":{"rendered":"Stars free agency breakdown: Which players will Jim Nill be tasked with re-signing?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0Dallas Stars<\/a> enter the offseason after an unexpectedly short season, falling in six games to the Minnesota Wild in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Heading into their longest offseason since 2022, the Stars will have some decisions to make about about key players on the roster who are free agents this summer.<\/p>\n

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While most of the Stars\u2019 core is under contract for years to come, here is a look at which players would need to re-sign this offseason.<\/p>\n

Unrestricted free agents<\/p>\n

Forwards: Nathan Bastian<\/a> (28 years old), Jamie Benn<\/a> (36), Michael Bunting<\/a> (30), Adam Erne<\/a> (31)<\/p>\n

Defensemen: Kyle Capobianco<\/a> (28), Alexander Petrovic<\/a> (34)<\/p>\n

For the second offseason in a row, Stars captain Jamie Benn will have to weigh his retirement. Last offseason, the longest tenured captain signed a one-year contract worth $1 million with the potential for $3 million in performance bonuses,<\/a> which Benn earned $2 million of this year. But after another underwhelming postseason performance, could he hang up his skates for good? Or will he try once more to land his name on the Stanley Cup before retirement?<\/p>\n

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In addition to Benn, the Stars have to decide whether to extend a few other depth players.<\/p>\n

\"DallasDallas Stars left wing Jamie Benn (14) shakes hands with Minnesota Wild left wing Marcus Foligno<\/a> (17) following Game 6 of a first-round NHL hockey playoff series in St. Paul, Minnesota, April 30, 2026. The Stars lost the game. 5-2, and the series. (Tom Fox\/The Dallas Morning News)Restricted free agents<\/p>\n

Forwards: Mavrik Bourque (24), Arttu Hyry<\/a> (25), Jason Robertson (26) <\/p>\n

Defensemen: None<\/p>\n

A restricted free agent (RFA) is the status given to a player whose initial entry level contract has come to an end but has yet to reach unrestricted free agency status.<\/p>\n

If the Stars make a qualifying offer by June 29, they retain the player\u2019s negotiating rights, meaning they have the right of first refusal to match any offer sheet that the player receives from another team.<\/p>\n

Robertson\u2019s qualifying offer is $9.3 million, but the Stars will likely try to extend him long-term and are expected to need to pay him around $12 million a year to keep him<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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RELATED: After first-round exit, Stars have three serious issues that need to be addressed<\/a><\/p>\n

Under contract<\/p>\n

Forwards (10) \u00a0 <\/p>\n

Oskar B\u00e4ck – 26 years old, one year left<\/p>\n

Colin Blackwell<\/a> \u2013 33 years old, one year left<\/p>\n

Matt Duchene<\/a> \u2013 35 years old, three years left<\/p>\n

Radek Faksa<\/a> \u2013 32 years old, two years left<\/p>\n

Justin Hryckowian<\/a> \u2013 25 years old, two years left<\/p>\n

Wyatt Johnston<\/a> \u2013 22 years old, four years left<\/p>\n

Mikko Rantanen<\/a> \u2013 29 years old, seven years left<\/p>\n

Tyler Seguin<\/a> \u2013 34 years old, one year left<\/p>\n

Sam Steel<\/a> \u2013 28 years old, one year left <\/p>\n

Defensemen (7) \u00a0 <\/p>\n

Lian Bichsel<\/a> \u2013 21 years old, one year left<\/p>\n

Thomas Harley<\/a> \u2013 24 years old, eight years left<\/p>\n

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Miro Heiskanen<\/a> \u2013 26 years old, three years left<\/p>\n

Nils Lundkvist<\/a> \u2013 25 years old, two years left<\/p>\n

Ilya Lyubushkin<\/a> \u2013 32 years old, one year left<\/p>\n

Tyler Myers<\/a> \u2013 36 years old, one year left<\/p>\n

Goalies (2) \u00a0 <\/p>\n

Jake Oettinger<\/a> \u2013 27 years old, seven years left<\/p>\n

Casey DeSmith<\/a> \u2013 34 years old, one year left <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The\u00a0Dallas Stars enter the offseason after an unexpectedly short season, falling in six games to the Minnesota Wild…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":564660,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5117],"tags":[32525,2321,2322,58171,4808,1801,196,147,5278,5,3316,424,3733,1800,34083,35408,7080,1336,2876,5583,12137,270,38,423,3728,4,11749,1481,3367,197,2392,19654,2381,8484,3154,1531],"class_list":{"0":"post-564659","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas-stars","8":"tag-adam-erne","9":"tag-alexander-petrovic","10":"tag-american-airlines-center","11":"tag-arttu-hyry","12":"tag-casey-desmith","13":"tag-colin-blackwell","14":"tag-dallas","15":"tag-dallas-stars","16":"tag-dallasstars","17":"tag-hockey","18":"tag-ilya-lyubushkin","19":"tag-jake-oettinger","20":"tag-jamie-benn","21":"tag-jason-robertson","22":"tag-justin-hryckowian","23":"tag-kyle-capobianco","24":"tag-lian-bichsel","25":"tag-marcus-foligno","26":"tag-matt-duchene","27":"tag-mavrik-bourque","28":"tag-michael-bunting","29":"tag-mikko-rantanen","30":"tag-minnesota-wild","31":"tag-miro-heiskanen","32":"tag-nathan-bastian","33":"tag-nhl","34":"tag-nils-lundkvist","35":"tag-radek-faksa","36":"tag-sam-steel","37":"tag-stars","38":"tag-thomas-harley","39":"tag-tyler-myers","40":"tag-tyler-seguin","41":"tag-unrestricted-free-agents","42":"tag-utah-mammoth","43":"tag-wyatt-johnston"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=564659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}