Jason Robertson is still on Pittsburgh's radar, and this time the Penguins aren't backing off quietly.
According to David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period, Pittsburgh tried to land Robertson once already and is still circling the Dallas winger this week.
That's a notable follow-through from Kyle Dubas, who doesn't usually let a target go without a second attempt.
Robertson just put up 96 points in 82 games for Dallas, with 45 goals and 51 assists, and he's coming off a stretch of 13 points in his last 10 outings.
He carries a cap hit of $7,750,000, tidy money for a winger who scored 15 power-play goals and posted a plus-22 rating this season.
Dallas finished third overall at 50-20-12, riding a five-game win streak into the stretch, so parting with a top-line scorer like Robertson would be a strange call from Jim Nill's side.
Pittsburgh, meanwhile, closed out 41-25-16, good for tenth overall, and their forward group behind Sidney Crosby and Bryan Rust has plenty of room for a scorer of Robertson's caliber.
Why Pittsburgh keeps circling Jason Robertson
Crosby led the Penguins with 74 points this year, Rust chipped in 65, and Evgeni Malkin added 61 in just 56 games. Robertson would slot in and immediately outscore all of them.
But here's the problem. Erik Karlsson is already sitting on an $11,500,000 cap hit for Pittsburgh, and stacking Robertson's number on top of that stretches things fast.
Would Dubas really strip assets or cap flexibility for a rental on a team that just missed the top eight? That's the real tension here.
Dallas and Pittsburgh met twice this season, and Dallas won both, including a 6-3 road win back in March. Robertson factored into that Stars depth that keeps steamrolling teams like Pittsburgh.
Trading a 26-year-old coming off a 96-point year isn't something Nill does unless the return blows him away. And Pittsburgh, by most accounts, hasn't gotten there yet.
Still, Pagnotta's report makes clear this isn't dead. Pittsburgh tried once, got turned down, and is coming back around anyway.
That kind of persistence usually means one of two things. Either Dubas sees a crack in Dallas's asking price, or he's just running out of ways to fix a forward group that finished tenth overall.
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Either way, Robertson isn't going anywhere on his own. The next move belongs to Dallas.
Should the Penguins keep pursuing Jason Robertson even after Dallas already said no?
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