Navigating the salary cap is one of the most important tasks for a front office. Teams that can avoid total cap chaos by walking the tightrope of inking players to deals that match their value (or compensate for future value without breaking the bank) remain successful. Those that don’t often see struggles and front office changes.
PHR will look at every NHL team and give a thorough look at their cap situation for the 2024-25 season. This will focus more on players who are regulars on the roster versus those who may find themselves shuttling between the AHL and NHL. All cap figures are courtesy of PuckPedia. We’re currently covering the Pacific Division, last up is the Golden Knights.
Vegas Golden Knights
Current Cap Hit: $87,344,447 (under the $88MM Upper Limit)
Entry-Level Contracts
F Alexander Holtz (one year, $894K)
Potential Bonuses
Holtz: $850K
Holtz was acquired from New Jersey over the offseason in the hopes that a change of scenery would help him reach some of the potential that made him the seventh overall pick in 2020. That hasn’t come to fruition so far as his role and production have been as limited as they were with the Devils. It’s still too early to give up on him but he’s heading for a short-term bridge deal that shouldn’t cost too much more than his entry-level deal does. At this point, his bonuses are unlikely to be reached.
Signed Through 2024-25, Non-Entry-Level
D Nic Hague ($2.294MM, RFA)
G Adin Hill ($4.9MM, UFA)
F Victor Olofsson ($1.075MM, UFA)
F Tanner Pearson ($775K, UFA)
G Ilya Samsonov ($1.8MM, UFA)
F Cole Schwindt ($800K, RFA)
Olofsson didn’t have a great platform year with Buffalo last season, leading to this deal where he hoped that a strong showing with Vegas could give him a stronger market next summer. Injuries have limited him thus far but he still has seven goals in 14 games. If he can stay close to that level, he should be able to get closer to the $3MM or $4MM mark albeit likely on another short-term agreement.
Schwindt was claimed off waivers at the start of the season and has held down a spot on the fourth line for most of the year. He’s arbitration-eligible which could work against him as this is a roster spot that Vegas will want to keep close to the minimum. If Schwindt is open to a short-term deal around this price point, that could be enough to keep him around. Pearson converted a preseason PTO into a minimum salary deal. While he has fit in well in a limited role, it’s hard to see him landing much more than this next offseason.
Hague has been a fourth or fifth defender for most of his career although his role and playing time have been reduced this season. That’s not ideal as he’s heading toward having to be qualified at $2.7MM with arbitration rights that could push the cost closer to $4MM per season. If he stays in more of a sixth role, he could become a non-tender candidate.
With Logan Thompson being moved to Washington, Hill became the undisputed starter, a good spot to be in considering it’s a contract year. That said, his play has been a bit inconsistent which will make it difficult for him to command much more than he’s making now. That said, he should be able to get something around this price point on a longer-term agreement than the two-year pact he’s playing on. Samsonov had a rough year with Toronto in 2023-24 resulting in Samsonov looking for a place to try to rebuild his value. He has performed a little better than a year ago but certainly not to the point where teams will be looking at him as a starter. That said, a strong second half could allow him to approach the $3MM to $3.5MM mark as a backup who can play starters minutes when needed.
Signed Through 2025-26
F Pavel Dorofeyev ($1.835MM, RFA)
F Jack Eichel ($10MM, UFA)
D Ben Hutton ($975K, UFA)
D Kaedan Korczak ($825K, RFA)
Eichel has become the number one center that Vegas was hoping he’d be when they acquired him in 2021. That said, he never has really had high-end point production before this season which might limit his market value to a point. A small raise should still be expected on a max-term agreement but unless he can get to that 100-point threshold, he might be hard-pressed to beat someone like Vancouver’s Elias Pettersson ($11.6MM) barring a big jump in the salary cap by then. Dorofeyev impressed in limited action last season and is producing at a better rate so far this year, making him a strong value piece on his bridge deal. He’ll have arbitration rights in 2026 and if he continues to score at the pace he’s on, he could jump past $5MM per season on his next contract.
Hutton has been a capable depth defender for several years now which has helped earn him some stability with Vegas. But these types of pieces generally stay low-cost and it would be surprising to see Hutton land any sort of notable raise on this deal, especially as teams will want to keep the back-of-the-roster spots as close to the minimum as possible. Korczak is in a similar situation, although he’s young enough (23) to still change those fortunes. If he stays in a depth role, he’s in the same boat as Hutton and his arbitration eligibility could work against him. If he locks down a full-time spot, he could push for something more in the $1.5MM range.
Signed Through 2026-27
F William Karlsson ($5.9MM, UFA)
D Alex Pietrangelo ($8.8MM, UFA)
F Nicolas Roy ($3MM, UFA)
F Mark Stone ($9.5MM, UFA)
When healthy, Stone is a legitimate top-line two-way threat, one that’s a key part of this lineup. Of course, staying healthy has been a challenge for him over the years as he has missed significant time due to injuries over the past several years. That will hurt him when it comes time for his next deal, as will the fact he’ll be 35 at that time. Even in what should be a more favorable cap environment by then, Stone will likely be heading for a pay cut. It wouldn’t be shocking to see a longer-term deal with an eye on getting the cap hit lower, similar to what Pittsburgh did with Kris Letang and Evgeni Malkin in the past (though Stone’s price tag should come above theirs).
Karlsson has been a solid second option down the middle throughout most of his tenure with Vegas and the price tag for those players has shot up over the years. That said, he’ll be 34 which means there’s a good chance his next contract is his last one. Assuming it’s a longer-term one to keep the AAV down, it’s possible Karlsson’s price tag stays in this range. Roy has held the third center role for the bulk of his time with the Golden Knights and has been above-average on the production side for the last few seasons. It’s already a below-market deal and if he stays in that 40-point range, his next contract should start with a four.
In his prime, Pietrangelo was a high-end two-way threat from the back end. However, he turns 35 next month and his production and ice time have dropped in recent years. When he started in Vegas, Pietrangelo was worth this price tag, if not more. But as the offensive numbers go down and he slips a bit more on the depth chart (or they at least try to manage his minutes a bit more), the perception of this deal will flip to an above-market one, an outcome that shouldn’t come as much surprise as that was the expectation at the time it was signed. Having said that, he’s still playing a big enough role to give Vegas a decent return and that should continue for at least a little while longer.
Signed Through 2027-28 Or Longer
F Ivan Barbashev ($5MM through 2027-28)
D Noah Hanifin ($7.35MM through 2031-32)
F Tomas Hertl ($6.75MM through 2029-30)
F Brett Howden ($1.9MM in 2024-25, $2.5MM from 2025-26 through 2029-30)
F Keegan Kolesar ($1.4MM in 2024-25, $2.5MM from 2025-26 through 2027-28)
D Brayden McNabb ($2.85MM in 2024-25, $3.65MM from 2025-26 through 2027-28)
D Shea Theodore ($5.2MM in 2024-25, $7.425MM from 2025-26 through 2031-32)
D Zach Whitecloud ($2.75MM through 2027-28)
*-San Jose is retaining an additional $1.3875MM on Hertl’s deal.
Hertl was a surprising acquisition at the trade deadline and has given the Golden Knights enviable depth at center, allowing them to shift Karlsson to the wing at times. Even with retention, this is a bit of a high price tag for a player who has only surpassed 65 points once in his career but he should be able to hold down a spot on the second line for the bulk of the remainder of this agreement which means Vegas should get a good return on their investment. Barbashev’s offensive improvement over the past few years helped earn him this contract and he has taken that production to another level this year, hovering near the point-per-game mark. If that holds, he’ll be a considerable bargain in a hurry while positioning himself for a big raise down the road.
Howden hasn’t been a big point producer before this season (where he has a career-high 13 goals already). That helped keep the price tag on his extension down. They’ll be counting on him routinely putting up around 25 points a season to justify the higher price tag but that’s a reasonable goal for him to try to reach based on his uptick this season. Kolesar opted to avoid testing free agency with this deal from just a couple of weeks ago. It’s on the higher side for someone who has spent a lot of time on the fourth line in his career but he has been playing more than lately which would have helped him on the open market. As a physical player who is showing a bit of a scoring touch this season (he also has a new personal best in tallies already with nine), there’s a good chance he’d have made more than this had he waited until free agency to sign.
When healthy, Theodore has been one of the more impressive offensive performers in recent years among NHL defenders. However, like Stone, staying healthy has been a challenge. That almost certainly played a considerable role in the blueliner getting $7.425MM per season on his extension when his open-market value would have been a lot higher, especially if he manages to stay in the lineup more often in 2024-25. For an all-around blueliner that logs around 22 minutes a night, this new price tag is still a team-friendly deal. The $5.2MM that Theodore is making this season is one of the better back-end bargains across the NHL.
Vegas got creative last season to add Hanifin with double retention and they wasted little time signing him to this deal a month after he was acquired. For someone who has only been above average in terms of production for the last few years, there’s a bit of risk but he’s in the prime of his career and is a high-end defensive player which helps to mitigate that. Top defensive players don’t often get this type of commitment but he’s one of the exceptions.
McNabb has never been a big point-getter which has limited his market in the past. However, he’s still a reliable fourth defender and a good shutdown option which would have given him a good market in free agency even though he’ll be 34 when he starts that contract. As long as he stays in that fourth role, they’ll do fine with this deal. As for Whitecloud, he has been a regular on the third pairing for the past five years but hasn’t progressed from that point as they were hoping when they gave him this deal back in 2021. It’s not a bad-value contract – especially as a right-shot player, the side in high demand – but it’s on the higher end for more of a limited piece.
Buyouts
None
Retained Salary Transactions
None
Best Value: (non-entry-level) Theodore
Worst Value: Pietrangelo
Looking Ahead
With Robin Lehner’s contract not counting against the books this year, Vegas hasn’t had to use LTIR as frequently, allowing them to bank in-season flexibility for the first time in a long time. That said, they’re still tight enough to the cap ceiling that as things stand, they won’t be able to take much money on though it shouldn’t be a true money-in, money-out situation.
With the Golden Knights handing out several early extensions this season, they’ve spent up a lot of their flexibility for next summer as they have over $79.5MM in commitments on the books already to 17 players. Knowing they need to sign a goalie tandem, potentially re-up Hague, and fill out the rest of the roster, GM Kelly McCrimmon likely won’t have a lot of spending room to add next summer. With the long-term commitments they have now and those upcoming (Eichel, for example, is heading for another big-ticket contract), it’s going to be difficult for them to make another big splash without parting ways with a key veteran to do. Of course, they’ve demonstrated that they’re willing to do just that before so if anyone can get creative to add a core piece, it will be McCrimmon and his team.
Photos courtesy of Imagn Images.