Saad fills the veteran scoring winger need that Vegas was looking to address before the trade deadline. That need has been exacerbated in recent weeks with long-term injuries to William Karlsson and Cole Schwindt, forcing players like Raphael Lavoie and Keegan Kolesar to step into top-nine roles. They fill the hole without giving anything up aside from cap space, which they were tight on before today’s move with Karlsson and Schwindt on standard IR.

Unless they make a corresponding transaction, Karlsson will likely be transferred to LTIR if he’s not expected back before the 4 Nations Face-Off. If he is, Schwindt and his $800K cap hit have been out of the lineup longer, making a retroactive placement easier. Just Schwindt’s relief will likely be enough to accommodate Saad’s cap hit on the roster, especially with SinBin Vegas reporting they’ve returned Callahan Burke to AHL Henderson today.

Saad gives the Golden Knights immediate top-nine help, and they’re hoping a rebound in shooting percentage accompanies his arrival. Amid trade rumors for a good portion of the season, his underwhelming start to the 2024-25 campaign with the Blues included a career-worst -14 rating and a 9.3% shooting rate that he’s only underperformed once. The seven-time 20-goal scorer only had seven tallies through 43 games as a result, production he’ll look to jumpstart in Vegas after posting 26 goals just one season ago.

The Knights were likely one of a few teams interested in acquiring Saad from St. Louis via trade but couldn’t work out a deal. He had one season left after this one on his previous contract with a $4.5MM cap hit. With that obstacle out of the way following his mutual termination, Saad gets a fresh start – albeit on a significant discount on his previous price point – and the Knights get their desired piece.

A strong finish to the season could allow Saad to recoup his lost market value on the open market this summer, potentially even sniffing his previous AAV on a short-term deal if he can prove he can still produce at a 20-goal pace.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Kevin Weekes of ESPN was first to report the Golden Knights were signing Saad.

• The Oilers have reassigned defenseman Josh Brown and forward Drake Caggiula to AHL Bakersfield. Brown has been shuffled back and forth in recent days while Caggiula was recalled back on Thursday.  Edmonton is off until Friday and the moves allow them to dip out of using LTIR and bank a small amount of cap space for the next few days.  At least one of them, if not both, will likely be recalled later in the week.
• A day after being papered down, the Bruins have recalled forward Marc McLaughlin and defenseman Jordan Oesterle from AHL Providence. McLaughlin hasn’t played for Boston yet this season while Oesterle suited up three times earlier this month.
• The Hurricanes have recalled winger Jackson Blake and goaltender Spencer Martin from their latest paper loan to AHL Chicago. Both players have been shuffled back and forth routinely in cap-saving moves.
• A day after the Devils loaned wingers Shane Bowers and Nolan Foote along with defenseman Nick DeSimone to AHL Utica, the trio was recalled today. Sunday’s demotions allowed them to clear LTIR for the day but they are back to using it for the time being now.
• After being papered down on Sunday, the Golden Knights have recalled wingers Mason Morelli and Callahan Burke, who scored his first NHL goal on Saturday in a win over Montreal. They also brought back blueliner Robert Hagg who was both recalled (on an emergency basis) and sent down on Saturday.  Hagg’s recall moves Vegas back into using LTIR for now.

Per PuckPedia, the order of transactions here is especially relevant. Vegas assigned winger Victor Olofsson, who had been on LTIR since last month, to AHL Henderson on a conditioning loan yesterday but activated him before doing so, keeping them briefly cap-compliant without using LTIR.

This resets their capture, allowing them to re-optimize how much temporary flexibility they could achieve from Hutton’s LTIR placement. They moved Stone to IR and recalled Morelli and Røndbjerg all before placing Hutton on LTIR, then recalled Burke as the final transaction. After the moves, the Knights have a full active roster with 15 forwards, six defensemen and two goaltenders with $200K left in their LTIR pool.

For Stone, the IR placement is purely for roster management purposes and doesn’t affect his return timeline. He can be activated at any time since he’s already missed more than seven days, and since he’s on IR and not LTIR, his $9.5MM cap hit still effectively counts against Vegas’ books. The captain shouldn’t be too far off from a return after starting the season on a tear with six goals and 15 assists for 21 points in 13 games.

Hutton, 31, sustained the injury early in Sunday’s game against the Capitals and left after just four shifts and 2:40 of ice time. Vegas’ seventh defender for the past four years was a healthy scratch for 12 games in a row to begin the season but had played in five of their last six games, posting no points, five hits and three blocks while averaging 11:40 per contest and occasionally suiting up at right wing while Vegas dressed only 11 forwards.

He’s listed as week-to-week and won’t be eligible to return until Dec. 12 at the earliest now that he’s on LTIR. It’s far from a monumental loss, given how little he’d played, but it still stretches their defensive depth thin with Nicolas Hague already on IR with an undisclosed injury.

The moves mean that the Golden Knights’ recent stretch of running 11 forwards and seven defensemen is over, with only six blue-liners available on the roster. That means that one of Burke, Morelli or Røndbjerg will enter the lineup Wednesday against the Maple Leafs, likely the latter.

The 25-year-old Røndbjerg has played in a pair of games already for Vegas this season amid some short-term call-ups, posting a -1 rating and averaging just 7:33 per night. The Danish winger was a third-round pick in the Knights’ inaugural 2017 draft class and has three goals and seven assists for 10 points in 65 career NHL games dating back to his debut in 2021-22.

Burke, 27, is in his first season in the Vegas organization after signing a two-way contract as a UFA over the summer. The 5’10” forward has two goals and four assists for six points in 11 appearances with Henderson this season. The undrafted Notre Dame product is still looking for his first NHL point despite playing in a trio of games with the Avalanche and Hurricanes in spot duty over the past two years.

Morelli, 28, made his NHL debut for the Golden Knights last season amid a rash of forward injuries, scoring three times in nine games while adding an assist. The North Dakota native spent the first four seasons of his professional career on AHL contracts before earning an NHL deal with Vegas last year. He now serves as an alternate captain for Henderson and is tied for the team lead with five goals in 13 games, adding four assists for nine points.

Burke, 27, began his professional career as an undrafted free agent signing by the AHL’s Colorado Eagles in 2020 out of Notre Dame. The Massachusetts native worked his way up the organizational ladder, playing a season and a half for the Eagles before earning an entry-level deal from the Avalanche in December of 2021. He remained with the Avs on two-way deals for the next few seasons, eventually making his NHL debut over a two-game stint early in the 2022-23 campaign.

The Avs traded Burke to the Hurricanes just after this past season began, but without a full-time AHL affiliate in 2023-24, Carolina loaned him back to the Eagles for the entirety of the year aside from a one-game call-up in October. He didn’t register a point in his three combined NHL showings over the past two seasons, posting a -1 rating while averaging 8:14 per game. The 5’10”, 183-lb forward is coming off a decent season with the Eagles, tying his career-high of 16 goals and 39 points in 57 games.

He provides some veteran experience for AHL Henderson, where he’s likely destined for should he clear waivers during training camp.

Despite being signed to a one-way deal, a similar fate likely belies Hägg, who played just five games with the Ducks last season and spent nearly all of the campaign on assignment to AHL San Diego. Now 29, the Swede is a decent call-up option with nearly 350 games of NHL experience. He could provide some decent competition for Ben Hutton and Kaedan Korczak for an extra defense spot out of camp, but the latter signing a two-year, one-way deal earlier this week indicates Vegas is likely ready to give the 23-year-old more consistent big-league minutes.

Hägg was a second-round pick of the Flyers in 2013, suiting up in 236 games for them over five seasons before being traded to the Sabres in 2021. Since then, he’s played spot duty on the Panthers’ and Red Wings’ blue lines as well as Anaheim’s.

10/21/23: Late last night, the Hurricanes made a roster move, announcing the recall of forward Callahan Burke from AHL Colorado on an emergency basis.  It’s unclear at this time which Carolina player’s availability is in question for their game tonight against the Avalanche.

The Hurricanes acquired Burke from the Avs earlier this month in exchange for defenseman Caleb Jones.  The swap amounted to a cost-cutting move for the Hurricanes as they moved Jones’ one-way deal for Burke’s two-way pact which only carries a guaranteed salary of $125K.

Burke had his best season at the AHL level in 2022-23, recording 16 goals and 23 assists in 70 games with the Eagles.  That also earned the 26-year-old his first taste of NHL action as he got into a pair of games with the Avs.  This season, he an assist in two games with the Eagles; Carolina opted to keep him with Colorado’s farm team since they don’t have an AHL affiliate of their own this season.  Now, he might get a chance to play against his former team tonight.

Jones signed a one-year, league-minimum deal with the Hurricanes this offseason but failed to make a dent in their defensive depth chart and did not earn a spot on head coach Rod Brind’Amour’s season-opening roster.

While he would have served as capable depth for the Hurricanes, it does appear that he has a stronger opportunity to make it back to the NHL (where he spent the entirety of 2022-23) in Colorado.

Since the Avalanche now consider Kurtis MacDermid a forward, the club is only carrying six defensemen on its opening-night roster.

Veteran Jack Johnson is currently slated to be the team’s third-pairing left-shot defenseman. He only played in 25 games last season, though, and at 36 years old the question of whether he’ll be able to keep up with the pace of the NHL for a full season is a fair one. Now that his NHL rights belong to Colorado, Jones has a clearer path back to the NHL.

For Carolina, this move accomplishes two things. First and foremost, it’s a courtesy to a player who spent all of last season in the NHL, as this move as mentioned provides Jones a stronger chance of cracking an NHL lineup.

Beyond that, while this trade doesn’t make any impact on the Hurricanes’ salary cap picture, it does save them quite a bit of actual cash.

Jones was signed to a one-way deal, meaning he is slated to be paid $775k this season, regardless of if he plays in the NHL or AHL. Burke, on the other hand, is on a two-way deal that owes him $125k at the AHL level.

So assuming Burke ends up playing the whole season with the Colorado Eagles, this move could end up saving the Hurricanes $650,000 in cash.

That’s not to say Burke won’t find his way to Carolina this season, in all fairness to him. Now 26, Burke is a capable player, having scored 39 points in the AHL last season. He even made his NHL debut for the Avalanche last season as well.

But a recall does have to be considered somewhat unlikely. In the case of injuries on Carolina’s NHL roster, the Organization could very well prefer to recall a player the Hurricanes have a longstanding investment in such as Jamieson Rees, rather than Burke.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Colorado Avalanche

F Callahan Burke

Pittsburgh Penguins

F Jonathan Gruden
F Rem Pitlick
D Ty Smith
D Taylor Fedun
D Xavier Ouellet

Vancouver Canucks

G Spencer Martin

Smith is the biggest name here is Smith. Smith was a 2018 first-round pick of the New Jersey Devils and became a star WHL blueliner for the Spokane Chiefs. He turned pro in 2020-21, scoring 23 points in 48 games. That performance landed him on the NHL’s All-Rookie team, as well as some down-ballot Calder Trophy votes.

The Devils dealt Smith and a third-round pick to the Penguins in exchange for John Marino, who went on to have a stellar 2022-23 season. Smith, on the other hand, played in only nine NHL game for the Penguins. He spent most of last season in the AHL, scoring 24 points in 39 games, and now the AHL is where he’ll be once again assuming he can clear waivers.

Given the promise Smith showed earlier in his career and his pedigree as a former top prospect, it would not be shocking whatsoever to see a team put a claim in on Smith, who is playing on a one-year, league-minimum cap-hit.

In terms of the other names on the waiver wire, Martin’s placement comes as no surprise after the Canucks’ acquisition of Casey DeSmith from the Montreal Canadiens. Martin posted a dreadful .871 save percentage in the NHL last season, but fared far better in the AHL. The Canucks will hope he’ll clear waivers so he can provide quality goaltending alongside prospect goalie Artūrs Šilovs in AHL Abbotsford.

Another recognizable name on the waiver wire is that of Rem Pitlick. Pitlick scored 37 points in 2021-22 on the Montreal Canadiens and Nashville Predators, but struggled in 2022-23. He was dealt to Pittsburgh by Montreal as part of the Erik Karlsson trade with the hope, from Pitlick’s perspective, that the Penguins would provide a solid change-of-scenery NHL opportunity.

He now finds himself on the waiver wire, though, and his $1.1MM cap hit could be a barrier towards another team putting in a claim. The versatile forward scored at an above-point-per-game rate in the AHL last season, and could end up an impact player for AHL Wilkes-Barre Scranton.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Burke, 26, will stick around as an impactful top-nine forward in the minors for the Colorado Eagles. Brought into the organization on an AHL contract by the Eagles out of the University of Notre Dame, Burke made his NHL debut earlier this season for an injury-ravaged Avalanche team. After playing in two games in December 2022, he’s still looking for his first NHL point.

A two-time Big Ten champion with Notre Dame in 2018 and 2019, it’s been a long road to NHL relevancy for Burke. Yet he’s managed to work his way into a rather important spot for the Eagles, where he sits third in scoring with 37 points (16 goals, 21 assists) in 68 games.

Burke was a pending restricted free agent with arbitration rights before agreeing to the extension. He’ll be an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2024.