To say the 2021-22 season was a gigantic disappointment for the Vegas Golden Knights would also be a massive understatement. After mortgaging a large part of their future to acquire superstar center Jack Eichel, albeit for the long term, the team missed the playoffs for the first time in franchise history and fired head coach Peter DeBoer earlier this week.
Now, general manager Kelly McCrimmon has an arduous offseason to retool the roster and find a new head coach. Both will need significant attention, however, the Knights are already entering free agency with the pressing need to shed cap space. With a roster size of 23, the team is already in a salary deficit of about $500,000, even with the small cap increase to $82.5MM next year (CapFriendly).
While some of those players may be sent to AHL Henderson when the team is fully healthy, the team needs to make a decision on RFAs Nicolas Roy, Brett Howden, Keegan Kolesar, and Nicolas Hague, who have all been extremely valuable to the team in their depth roles. It’s clear that unless the Knights somehow make a move to acquire significant long-term injury relief (Shea Weber?), the team needs to move on from a decent chunk of cash to be comfortable under the cap in 2022-23.
Obviously, the choice that jumps off the page is forward Evgenii Dadonov. Signed just through next season at $5MM, the veteran forward was already involved in a trade intended to dump his salary but was reversed due to his limited no-trade clause. He did hit the 20-goal mark again this year and could do so again if given good support. It’s a low-risk acquisition for teams looking for scoring depth, especially with his contract expiring at the end of the year. However, Vegas has absolutely no leverage in this situation given the failed trade in March. If that incident didn’t happen, the Knights could probably have made a decent deal involving Dadonov this offseason. They’ll likely still be able to make a trade, but it won’t involve much benefit for the team other than cap space.
Another potential option is William Karlsson. Given his offensive upside and defensive acumen, teams would probably like to have a top-six centerman under a $6MM cap hit. With the Eichel acquisition and solid play from the cheaper Chandler Stephenson, there is no longer a pressing need for Karlsson in the lineup. He had a very tough season putting pucks in the net, though, and his 40-goal 2017-18 campaign seems like decades ago for him now. He’s scored just 15, 14, and 12 goals in the past three years, and while he still puts up points, he’s signed through 2027. It would clear a tad more cap space than Dadonov, though, and the wing is more a position of need for the Knights. Yet, the relationship between Dadonov and the Knights must be considered. If the relationship is irreparably severed, the team might have no choice. That’s not to say they still couldn’t entertain the idea of moving Karlsson, however.
Lastly, there’s backup netminder Laurent Brossoit and his $2.3MM cap hit. He’s almost surely gone considering the incredibly strong play of youngster Logan Thompson down the stretch. It’s not much cap relief, though, and the team likely needs a little more wiggle room to adjust the roster as desired.
to me it seems like mccrimmon theo’ed this team and went “all in” one to many times to win the big one and now face cap hell and now and has nothing in the farm to replace any big contracts because he traded them all away. it’s starting to look like vgk are going to have some tough years ahead of them.
Karlsson has gone from a fluke 78 point season to dropping points year after year to where he’s been in the 30s the last 2 seasons. Gonna be a tough sell at his salary
Yeah, exactly. Sorry, but Karlsson HAS no “offensive upside.” He had a freak season several years ago now, and that’s that. Sure, many teams would appreciate having a “top-six centerman” at $5.9, but if Josh Erickson thinks that Karlsson IS one, he needs to go back and do his homework. For how many teams in the league right now could Karlsson actually displace their #2 center? Sorry, but this guy’s a good third-line center right now, and getting paid twice as much as good third-line centers command.
This was just another of the many, many, many big-bucks/max-term contracts that are burying teams all over the league, and VGK would have to dole out some serious bribes to get any sucker to take this off of their hands. What’s the incentive of any team to help Vegas out right now?
Honestly, unless they can find a team to do it, Vegas might need to consider the nuclear option here: buyout. It’ll save them a touch under $4 million against the cap for each of the next five seasons.
Karlsson reminds me of Marty Lapointe 1 good year great big raise then sh** the bed…
@bucky76 i’m giving you an upvote for using lyrics from rosetta stoned
That Eichel deal was a mistake
34 games and you are already deciding on that?
Didn’t take me 34 games to decide that. It didn’t take me as much as 34 SECONDS. Eichel is getting paid like the preeminent superstar *he never has been*, an amount of money that you pay a guy who can carry a team, like *he never has*. Alex Tuch outperformed him all by himself, and that’s not counting Krebs or whatever return the Sabres get on those 1st and 2nd rounders.
Detroit needs a 2C and can afford Karlsson. Hmm, maybe……… for the Caps 2nd, 5 more yrs tho
His production screams good 3rd line center
Interesting. Do you think Stevie Y would want him?
Acquiring a player on LTIR doesn’t give a team more cap space.
Know the rules of the league you are reporting on ffs!
Exactly just posted the same thing. Everyone thinks Tampa gained a bunch of cap space when they traded for Seabrook last year, but they only gained because they moved a big contract out in the trade.
How does acquiring Shea Weber help? Getting him adds his cap hit, then you lose it when you put him on LTIR so you free up 0 dollars in cap space and make it harder to accrue cap space. So unless you are moving money out to bring him in that makes no sense.
You move the salary out to take on a LITR contract. So you are still at max but now when the season starts you can then move the contact to LITR and add the extra space.
You have to be able to have the room for the full contract (Weber) to start the yr. He has to be in the active roster at the start. Then you can move him to LTIR and bring up someone from minors.
But if you have no player you can send down without waivers, you then would need to waive enough cash to be CAP compliant.
I just wish I could put circus sideshow music into words for the sake of any thread related to VGK. This is hilarious.
THey should gotten rid of at least one bad contract for eichel.
Sabres got slammed for the Eichel trade. Looks pretty good right now. Too six power forward, great prospect, medium first round pick and out from a huge contract. They seem improved with the current lineup
Vegas accidentally stumbled on the right formula…and then they tossed it away for shiny things.
Hockey is a weak link game. It’s not like basketball where a few stars can carry you or football where key pieces on offense can mask an overall weak 53 man roster.
Vegas came out of that expansion draft (and their corresponding moves) with depth across the board. No stars BUT no weak links. And it got them to the Final.
But Foley wants the team to be “Vegas” so that depth…that TEAM…was replaced by shiny thing after shiny thing until 5 guys take up 98% of their cap and they are a decidedly worse franchise for it.
And furthermore, hockey’s a sport that rewards hungry, motivated teams. You take a Reilly Smith or an Evgeny Dadonov and tell them they’re just salary-dumps-walking, and what does that do to team chemistry? You take a MAF, tell him he’s the heart and soul of your team, watch him win a Vezina, and THEN dump him for the newer toy, what does that teach your guys about loyalty? You take a Jonathan Marchessault, your team’s career scoring leader and a beast in the playoffs (where Eichel’s never played a playoff game), and tell him Vegas has NEVER had a “#1 center,” and what kind of motivation’s that?
With basketball, where one guy can go nuts and carry a team, you can get away with that. With baseball, where teamwork (as opposed to isolated individual performances) isn’t all that necessary, you can get away with that. As you say, hockey’s a weak link game, and the Knights’ weak link is Bill Foley.
Spot on
Spot on.
I expect Vegas to ply Bettman for coach Q’s get out of purgatory card, then move Dadonov to some Atlantic Division team — tho it may cost them a couple of 2nd rounders. No one is biting on Karlsson’s contract unless Vegas is desperate enough to offer up next year’s first round pick, no strings attached.
Probably shouldn’t take that much. Karlsson isn’t a BAD player, after all; he’s just overpaid for what he can provably bring to the table. He’s still young, and would fit in well enough for a team that had the cap space to burn. Buffalo could genuinely use the guy. So could Anaheim.
Do folks really think McCrimmon hasn’t thought thru all the possibilites here to be cap compliant? The Knights are still in better shape than alot of NHL rosters.
At any rate, David Poile should be active in getting someone like Reilly Smith. But he won’t because Smith isn’t a Dman. :/