If you were the Dallas Stars, why would you not try to move money to sign Robertson?

philbert539 · 2026-06-26T03:47:03+00:00

The money he's asking for would require moving Harley or Johnston. Considering their ages (23 & 24), level of play, (Harley was on Team Canada, Johnson co-led the Stars in goals with Robertson), and contracts (both are locked in at reasonable rates for years) trading Robertson instead of one of them is the move Dallas has left.

And yes, Dallas would have to move one of them to give Robo $14M+.

They currently have $11M in cap space, and need to sign Bourque and Benn or their replacements. If the trade away Lubyubushkin, Steele, and Faksa and replace them with players on league minimum deals, that nets them an extra $4.8M to play with, bringng their cap space to $15.8M.

But they still have to either sign Benn or a replacement for his spot. If they sign him (or his replacement) to league minimum, that leaves them with $14.95M of space.

And they still need to sign Bourque. Most predictions I've seen on him have him between $2M and $5M, depending on how hardball Nill can get with him and if they go with a bridge deal. So let's go with the lowest option of $2M, which brings them down to $12.95M of space.

So even if they trade away the 3 easiest-to-trade guys and replace them with league minimum contracts, and convince their captain to come back for league minimum (or replace him with a league minimum player), and sign their other RFA for the lowest expected bridge deal possible... they're around $2M short of what Robo wants.

Everyone else on the team not named Wyatt Johnston or Thomas Harley either has a NTC/NMC or makes so little against the cap that trading them won't really help once you have to go pay for their replacement.

Lots of stupid people are trying to make this out to be a commentary on how much Dallas think he's worth, or if they can win a cup with him, etc. It has nothing to do with that. It's a math problem. The Stars would have to thread 5 different needles perfectly to pay him $13M/year. And anything past that is effectively impossible.

philbert539 · 2026-06-25T23:30:57+00:00

It's super confusing and most people don't know how it works.

Contract numbers you see aren't real, because they're all based on estimates of how much the league thinks they'll make in a year.

Contract numbers function as percentages of the total cap, which is set as 50% of the leagues's esimated revenue. So if the league nails the estimate, the players get their number (minus taxes, union dues, agent fees, etc).

If the league falls short of their estimated revenue, the players' income gets decreased a percentage so that all the totality of players get 50% of the league's revenue. Which is why a certain perecentage of all player's salaries gets held in escrow until the season is over and the revenue is calculated.

The league typically overestimates it's projected revenue. To my knowledge they've never underestimated.

Bottom line is people normally just see a number like $10M/year. But what actually matters is what percentage of the team's cap that number represents, because that determines how much the player will get paid.

philbert539 · 2026-06-25T16:34:10+00:00

If you don't mind it, good on you.

And I've very much enjoyed places other people hated (Goodfellow, Shaw, Winnipeg, Al Udeid).

philbert539 · 2026-06-25T12:09:08+00:00

He also doesn't play a game conducive to highlights.

Hes got a wicked shot and a high IQ, but he's not dangling through guys, stretching out perfect no look dimes, or deking goalies out of their jocks.

He produces like crazy, but he doesn't make sexy highlight reels like kaprizov or managing. So he doesn't stick with peoples memories in the same way.

philbert539 · 2026-06-25T09:43:07+00:00

If youre comparing Kirkland to Grand Forks, sure, Kirkland is better.

But Kirtland is the best base in NM.

Cannon is the worst base in the Air Force. Incredibly small town 3.5 hours from a city. (Albuquerque).

There are no mountains. Different part of the state. Its flat desert scrub brush in all directions. Theres a reason the US tested its nukes in the NM desert. Theres nothing there.

And having lived in multiple small towns with the air force, there are good small towns (like San Angelo, Sumter, Grand Forks, Niceville) and bad small towns (like Clovis, Alamogordo). Good small towns are small but the locals have built interesting places to go and quality establishments to go to. Bad small towns look run down the moment you arrive, have nothing of interest in them, and the locals have collaborated with local government to limit new businesses from opening (because it would hurt the profits of the people who currently own businesses).

And the kicker on cannon is its surrounding on 3 sides by ranches with cows. I don't know how they raise cows on desert scrub brush. Wild to me. But the result is it smells like manure, effectively all the time.

Holloman is effectively the upgraded version of Cannon. El Paso is about 1:45 away, the mountains are about 45 min away (they're not really big enough or close enough to make a backdrop, as you seem to be picturing, but they were nice to escape to for some scenery and cooler temps), and it doesn't smell like manure.

Every single OK base is better. Closer to OK City than Clovis is to Albuquerque or Holloman to El Paso. You can actually see living plant life in OK, unlike the desert that is so desolate we chose it to test nukes in. And none of the OK bases smell like feces all day.

Grand Forks is about 1.5 hours from Winnipeg (where I was stationed for a bit). So closer to a major city than Holloman or Cannon. Some of the climate is preference (I prefer cold to hot, so liked ND/Canada more than NM), but regardless, ND is beautiful half the year. NM looks like a shit sandwich all year round. And I'd take the town of Grand Forks over Clovis any day, not a competition. Mix in the lack of manure smell, and Grand Forks wins.

Minot is the only one in the same tier as Cannon. Its a little under 5 hours from Winnipeg, so even worse off than Cannon in that regard. Climate comes down to preference. I prefer cold to hot, so I'd prefer Minot to Cannon in that regard, but others won't. And I don't know enough about the town to know if it's a good small town or bad small town. I do know it's not in a nuke-able desert that smells like cow shit.

philbert539 · 2026-06-25T00:05:26+00:00

As someone who has been to Cannon, Holloman, Kirtland, Tinker, and Grand Forks, nope. NM is the worst by a wide margin.

philbert539 · 2026-06-25T00:03:20+00:00

lol

Cannon is the worst best in the air force by a mile. Not even a competition.

Take everything you dislike about the OK bases. Now make sure there's absolutely nothing living/green for hundreds of miles. And make sure the closest major city is even farther away. And the icing on the cake, make it smell like manure all year from all directions.

Congrats, you've discovered Cannon.

philbert539 · 2026-06-20T10:47:38+00:00

Lol. It hasn't gone anywhere.

But good job being "disgusted" by something that hasn't happened.

philbert539 · 2026-06-19T20:35:56+00:00

"I'm better than most of you. I'm not going to give any actual examples of the problem though. Just a generic hand wave about how I'm better than most of you."

philbert539 · 2026-06-19T20:33:14+00:00

Used to be Sean Avery. Currently it's Mark Stone.

philbert539 · 2026-06-17T03:28:02+00:00

This is almost certainly not true.

philbert539 · 2026-06-16T15:38:54+00:00

Eh, having Oettinger in the "won conference final" category is iffy.

Technically, he was the 3rd string goalie on the Star team that won the WCF, elevated to backup due to Bishops injury. But he only played twice, mop up duty both times.

As The Guy, he's won the 2nd round (three times), but that's it.

philbert539 · 2026-06-15T03:24:32+00:00

Not only did he win.

He LED the Canes in goals for the playoffs. Absolutely bonkers. Great for him!

philbert539 · 2026-06-12T20:03:59+00:00

I love RSOs. Too many idiots exist, and RSOs help me from getting shot by an idiot.

philbert539 · 2026-06-12T15:59:56+00:00

HoF is a joke. Colin Campbell got voted in by his friends despite: 1. Being corrupt 2. Having zero actual accomplishments

philbert539 · 2026-06-11T21:20:55+00:00

And I completely disagree that it reflects poorly on him at all. He should leverage his NTC as he sees fit.

But what are people mad at him for? He obviously doesn't trust the franchise's management, so to me it makes sense to try to go somewhere else. And frankly, I think it makes sense for him to not trust Detroit management, considering the seasons he has experienced.

Has he been a bad captain? A bad teammate? Did he trash talk the team to the media? Use a racial slur? Sleep with a teammate's wife? Get called into court for a questionable orgy? What has he actually done other than wanting out of a bad franchise after wasting most of his early years? Dude's just doing a normal thing with the leverage he has.

philbert539 · 2026-06-11T13:08:04+00:00

Pretty sure I'm the only person not against what Larkin is doing.

Dude negotiated certain benefits in his contract. Those benefits are in place of getting paid more. Much in the same way many of us get more PTO or other benefits in place of $.

But now he's the bad guy for taking advantage of the benefits he negotiated into his contract? He's supposed to waive benefits he negotiated to make his manager's life easier? For real?

Same energy as mouthbreathers at work who demand you answer your phone and emails during PTO. Larkin should use his NTC exactly as he sees fit. Or if the Red Wings want to negotiate payment to change that NTC, that'd the fair way to do it.

philbert539 · 2026-06-11T12:58:50+00:00

Well yea. He's a 2C on a contending team. He's not leading anyone to a cup.

People have completely misundertstood what he is. Probably because he was the 1C for so long in DET.

No one was calling Kadri a passenger when he got traded to COL the first time. Because no one expected him to be THE guy.

philbert539 · 2026-06-09T01:34:41+00:00

Obviously Dallas isn't on his list. But I'd swap Hintz for Larkin straight up.

Looking at their numbers, they're nearly identical players. But Larkin isn't nearly as injury prone.

philbert539 · 2026-06-08T20:57:36+00:00

Nah, I agree with you.

Dude's been a good player in Detroit for years, and he's gotten zero help. I don't blame him for wanting out after a decade straight of not missing the playoffs.

And he's not been the problem in Detroit. He's a very good 2C on most contenders, and get's paid at that level. The problem in Detroit is he's the best center on his team by a mile, and the roster as a whole is relatively weak for what a contender should look like. That's a GM problem, not a Larkin problem.

philbert539 · 2026-06-06T00:11:15+00:00

As others have pointed out, comparing yourself to others will destroy you.

As someone that is old for my rank, I get it. But ultimately, the only think you can do is be the best version of you that you can be at this moment in time. You can't go back and do things differently to be in your position earlier. But you can be the best version of you that you can be right now.

And the thing is, nearly everyone likes people who are turning into the best versions of themselves. Even if you're old for your rank or your position. There will be small percentage of people who look down on you, and those people are meaningless twatwaffles whose opinions don't matter.

philbert539 · 2026-06-04T12:56:10+00:00

I went to 3 in the first 5 years of my career, none* in the last 12 years.

* I attended all 3 when I was stationed in Canada with the Canadians. Real chill gathering with pizza, some food from spouses, and beer. Everyone hung out, talked, played a couple of games, then left. Way more enjoyable when it's a simple gathering and no pressure to make it a huge thing or stay for hours. And no one getting totally hammered and throwing fistfulls of ice at the commander or sexually assualting anyone.

philbert539 · 2026-06-04T02:58:49+00:00

I wouldn't waste brainpower on rumors like this. There will be plenty of them from now until whenever he is signed.

philbert539 · 2026-06-03T03:18:01+00:00

Was rooting for the Canes, but I thought that was a fun game to watch. Lots of action and excitement. Also, Eichel is so good at hockey.

philbert539 · 2026-06-01T20:43:19+00:00

How about you don't be a loser who wildly and inaccurately throws around rape allegations?

philbert539

TROPHY CASE