Stars GM Jim Nill on trying to sign Jason Robertson, expectations, and future of prospect games

I caught up with the Dallas GM during the prospect games on Saturday night.

FRISCO, Texas — Jim Nill has had a fascinating last seven months.

Back in March the Dallas Stars general manager made one of the biggest swings of his career, trading for and then signing Mikko Rantanen to an eight-year extension. His team then reached the Western Conference for the third straight season, but again fell one series short of reaching the Stanley Cup Final.

Nill then made the decision to fire his head coach, a move that sent some NHL shockwaves after Pete DeBoer publicly put Jake Oettinger on blast after pulling him in Game 5.

DeBoer, it should be noted, made his first public comments since being fired in a story that published in NHL.com this weekend, stating, "Look, if we’d made the first round my first year, the second round my second and then the third round in the third, you could say we were making progress … but getting to the third round three straight years, we weren't able to get over the hump. I get it.”

Around the same time of the firing, Nill won the Jim Gregory General Manager of the Year Award for the third straight season, hired Glen Gulutzan as DeBoer’s replacement, and then entered an offseason where the Stars had to live with a new cap reality that came with Rantanen’s $12 million per season cap hit.

Adding to the outside public intrigue, rumors started to swirl about the Stars and Jason Robertson, about whether Dallas would trade the pending restricted free agent, and how that he might be on the market.

I spoke with Nill at length Saturday night during the Stars prospect game against the Detroit Red Wings, about the Robertson rumors, his expectations for the Stars going forward, the goalie situation, and the future of these prospect tournaments.