The offseason has arrived for all but two teams now with the playoffs nearing an end. Accordingly, it’s time to examine what they will need to accomplish over the coming weeks with free agency fast approaching. Next up is a look at Vegas.
After being a Wild Card team last season, the Golden Knights won the Pacific Division this year and made it a round further in the playoffs before being ousted by Edmonton in the second round. While it’s a step in the right direction, GM Kelly McCrimmon will still have some work to do this summer to tweak his group and set them up for the future.
Open Up Cap Space
On the surface, $9.6MM in cap space (per PuckPedia) isn’t too bad. Frankly, it’s more than they’ve had in past years in late spring. But that also comes with several key veterans getting set to hit the open market next month, including wingers Reilly Smith, Victor Olofsson, and Brandon Saad, along with goaltender Ilya Samsonov. Suffice it to say, those four players alone will probably cost that much or more next month.
So, if McCrimmon wants to add anyone of consequence to his group, he will need to open up some flexibility, something that is going to be easier said than done. William Karlsson was a logical speculative candidate with two years left on his contract at a $5.9MM AAV but that has been ruled out already.
Speculatively, their top talents are probably not in play. Their lower-cost ones aren’t necessarily going to move the needle in terms of opening up enough space to do something. And there aren’t too many in the medium-term cost category, especially with Karlsson off the table. Basically, that leaves defenseman Brayden McNabb ($3.65MM) and Ivan Barbashev ($5MM) as the only pieces that could be moved that could open up enough meaningful space to contribute toward a signing.
At this point, it certainly sounds like they’d like to open up enough flexibility to do something. How they create enough space to do so will be interesting to follow.
Work On Eichel Extension
This is something that McCrimmon highlighted at the end of the season as a priority, getting center Jack Eichel signed to a contract extension. He’ll be entering the final year of his contract in July, making him eligible to put pen to paper on a new deal. The two sides have already held preliminary talks but getting something across the finish line will be the goal.
The 28-year-old has done quite well with Vegas since being acquired four seasons ago following a prolonged battle with his former team in Buffalo as to what type of neck surgery to pursue. Eichel eventually got his way with the artificial disc procedure being done upon being acquired and while he has battled injuries along the way, that particular injury hasn’t been an issue since. He is coming off a career year that saw him record personal bests in assists (66) and points (94) and is averaging more than a point per game since the trade. He has also become a reliable defensive player, seeing regular time on the penalty kill and landing in the top five in Selke Trophy voting. Basically, Eichel is an all-around number one center, the type of player that is very hard to come by.
Eichel is already at the $10MM per season mark and it’s unlikely that a small increase to that will be enough to get it done thanks to the projected significant jumps to the Upper Limit of the salary cap over the next few years. His current deal was worth 12.58% of the salary cap at the time it was signed. Early projections for the salary cap for 2026-27 when his next contract will kick in have the ceiling at $104MM. Simply using the same 12.58% figure against that number, that would run his price tag up to $13.083MM per season. For now, at least, that would make him the third-highest-paid player in the league behind Leon Draisaitl ($14MM) and Auston Matthews ($13.25MM), a pair of middlemen themselves.
That’s pretty high territory for a player who has only reached the 80-point mark twice in his career, this season and back in 2018-19. It’s not that Eichel doesn’t produce at a point-per-game level, but he does have a history of injuries; his rookie year (2015-16) was the only time he reached the 80-game mark in a season. It wouldn’t be surprising to see McCrimmon try to factor that into the negotiation to try to get that AAV at least a little lower but Eichel’s camp should know that unless there’s a serious injury next season, he’d hit the open market as arguably the top player available at a premium position which could very well drive the price tag closer to Draisaitl’s mark. Are the Golden Knights willing to go that high to get something done now? We’ll find out over the next few months.
Defensive Decisions
The UFAs listed earlier aren’t the only expiring contracts the Golden Knights will be contending with this summer as defenseman Nicolas Hague is going to be an arbitration-eligible restricted free agent. Owed a $2.7MM qualifying offer this summer, the expectation is that he’ll be looking to land more than that. Given their cap situation, there has been no shortage of speculation that he’ll move.
However, there have also been suggestions that Alex Pietrangelo’s availability to start the season could be in question. While he was in the lineup following the 4 Nations Face-Off, he was playing through an injury the rest of the way including the playoffs and at 35 with over 1,200 NHL games under his belt (regular season and playoffs), he might be nearing the point where he’s going to be playing through some lingering issues for the final two years of his contract. Only the Golden Knights know his true availability to start 2025-26 but even if he is good to go, would the uncertainty make them consider adding on the back end? Would that make them lean toward keeping Hague, even though he’s a left-hand shot?
It’s expected that Kaedan Korczak will get a look at more of a regular role next season but he and Zach Whitecloud are the only other two right-hand shots on the back end in Vegas. Both are more third-pairing types of players so if they’re worried about Pietrangelo’s full-season availability, they might want to sniff around the right-shot market. That would cut into their cap space, obviously, but that type of insurance would be valuable. It could come from moving Hague for a right-shot piece or moving him for futures and signing one in free agency. One option would be an older player eligible for bonuses on a one-year deal (someone like Brent Burns), allowing them to push some of the costs to 2026-27 and potentially allow them to keep their full back end intact. There are some options here.
Failing that, it wouldn’t be shocking to see them try to add a veteran or two on the open market that could start with AHL Henderson but come up if and when injuries arise. The Hague speculation is plentiful but that probably won’t be the only headline from their back end this summer.
Look For Backup Goalie
After a disappointing year with Toronto in 2023-24, Samsonov opted to sign a one-year deal with Vegas in the hopes that he’d rebuild some of his value and be in better shape to hit the open market this summer. While he shaved 31 points off his GAA (down to 2.83), his SV% only improved by one point to .891, still below league average. At this point, it would be surprising if he returned.
Vegas did add Akira Schmid in a trade on the second day of the draft last year, acquiring him as part of the return in the deal that sent Paul Cotter to New Jersey. With Adin Hill and Samsonov comprising the tandem with the Golden Knights, Schmid spent most of this season in the AHL with the Silver Knights where he struggled, posting a 3.58 GAA and a .886 SV% in 30 outings, numbers that don’t exactly scream promotion-ready.
Granted, Schmid did well in limited duty in five games (three starts) with Vegas and he did have a good run late in 2022-23 with the Devils but then lost the backup job the following season relatively quickly. With just 48 NHL games under his belt (just 36 starts), is he ready to play 30 or more games with the Golden Knights? That’s not a given.
Schmid’s contract makes him appealing (a $875K AAV) but would they be better trying to spend closer to twice as much and get a more proven option or find another Samsonov-type goalie looking to bounce back? This isn’t necessarily a top-priority need but with the goalie market typically moving quickly once free agency opens up, a decision to that question will need to be made fairly quickly.
