Stars captain Jamie Benn again has a decision to make about whether to play another season

Only Modano better than Benn in many key categories

Hall of Fame center Mike Modano is the only player in franchise history with more than Benn’s 1,252 regular-season games, 414 goals and 992 points. Benn has played in 126 postseason games, but the only time he has been to the Stanley Cup Final was when the Stars lost in six games to Tampa Bay during the 2020 postseason played in a bubble in Canada because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Stars had made the Western Conference finals three seasons in a row before falling in six games to Minnesota in the first round of the playoffs this year.

“The goal is to win the Stanley Cup, and when you don’t do that, there’s an empty space, a little pit in your stomach where you have some fire to change things up for next year,” Benn said.

After missing this season’s first 19 games because of a punctured lung, Benn was out another three games in January with a broken nose. While 60 games were his fewest in a full 82-game regular season, he finished with 15 goals and 21 assists while playing just more than 13 minutes a game, a career low.

Robo will get a new contract

Leading scorer Jason Robertson can become a restricted free agent this offseason after the completion of the four-year, $31 million contract he got following a training camp holdout in 2022. The Stars and the forward who turns 27 on July 22 had said they would play out this season before negotiations on a new deal.

“I understand it’s a business on both sides, right? I’m optimistic, I hope,” Robertson said. “It’s not like what it was when I was 10 years old, getting to the NHL, anymore. It’s a business. I learned that four years ago.”

The Stars will retain negotiation rights for Robertson, and could match any offer he gets from another team, if they make a $9.3 million qualifying offer by June 29. He could become an unrestricted free agent next summer.

Robertson was coming off a 41-goal season when he got his last contract. He has since played all 328 regular-season games, with 365 points in that span (155 goals and 210 assists). He and Wyatt Johnston each had 45 goals this season, and Robertson had a goal in each of the first five playoff games.