The Golden Knights have taken care of one of their remaining restricted free agents as they announced the re-signing of defenseman Dylan Coghlan to a two-year contract. The deal carries an AAV that’s just over the league minimum at $762.5K.
The 23-year-old made his NHL debut last season after spending the first two seasons of his professional career exclusively in the minors. He made frequent appearances in our Taxi Squad Shuffle posts as he was sent down on 23 separate occasions. Despite that, he still managed to get into 29 games with Vegas, recording three goals and three assists while logging a little more than 13 minutes per game. Memorably, all three of those goals came in the same contest back in March against Minnesota, making him the third blueliner in NHL history to score their first three goals in the same game.
Now waiver-eligible, it’s less likely that Coghlan will be sent down now which made it crucial for the Golden Knights to get him signed for as close to the minimum as possible. Vegas projects to be very tight to the cap this coming season when Alex Tuch comes off LTIR midseason so every dollar counts as they’ll be operating right near the Upper Limit once again. Vegas GM Kelly McCrimmon still has some work to do on the contract front as offseason acquisition Nolan Patrick remains a restricted free agent and he’ll now focus on getting the center signed before training camp gets underway next week.