The Vegas Golden Knights are looking pretty good on their offseason checklist. They re-signed Reilly Smith and are reportedly zoning in on a deal with Brandon Saad. Part one of the checklist is done with winger depth being addressed.
Now? You must land the big fish. That's right, hockey fans. It's time to coronate the Golden Knights as the official "Evil Empire" by grabbing Mitch Marner. However, there's one small problem.
Vegas only has $7.615 million in cap space, according to PuckPedia. If you're looking to get the "Core Four" member, you'd better pay him more than that. Luckily, there are a couple of moves to make that happen.
First, there's the Alex Pietrangelo situation. What would happen if the defenseman isn't available for next season? That's a situation to monitor. But you must also trade some liabilities.
According to Sportsnet's Nick Kypreos, one of those names is Nicolas Roy. The center carries a cap hit of $3 million until 2027. He also doesn't have a no-move clause to his name, making him an obvious choice.
There are also names like Ivan Barbashev and his $5 million cap hit to be considered. However, he carries an eight-team no-trade list, which would make matters rough. That's only part of why Roy's name should be considered, though.
Why Nicolas Roy should be a primary Golden Knights trade candidate
We're going to do a similar exercise that highlighted how efficient Reilly Smith was with William Karlsson. Let's use the latter Misfit and examine why he matters more in the grand scheme than the 28-year-old. We shall look at the last two years as a prime example.
|
Player |
Goals |
Assists |
Takeaways |
Giveaways |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Ivan Barbashev |
42 |
54 |
46 |
115 |
|
William Karlsson |
39 |
50 |
56 |
85 |
|
Nicolas Roy |
28 |
44 |
61 |
84 |
Sure, you can look at Roy and say he's been better at forechecking. He's also up there with William Karlsson regarding his handling of the puck. However, those offensive numbers aren't close to his teammates.
Mind you, Roy had an average of 15:20 in the past two seasons. Compare that to Karlsson (17:19 TOI in the past two seasons) and Barbashev (16:28 TOI in the past two seasons) and what do you have? You have someone who's not hitting the mark as a center.
Sure, he might've had invaluable scoring during the 2023-24 season. However, he saw his numbers dip the next year, particularly in the assists area (28 in 2023-24 compared to 16 the next season).
Cost-effectiveness is key for the Golden Knights, too
That's not even mentioning how you're paying a fourth-line center $3 million annually. It's been mentioned numerous times how the Florida Panthers won the Stanley Cup with all three fourth-line players making less than that. However, that point still holds.
When you're able to avoid salary cap hell by trimming the fat on the lower lines, that makes you a Stanley Cup winner. Now compare that to the Edmonton Oilers, who have contracts with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl exceeding $10 million each. Somewhere, you're making cuts.
That's no different for Roy, who's making more as a fourth-line center than Reilly Smith. If Kelly McCrimmon wanted to get a Stanley Cup, that should start with cutting costs on the lower lines down the road, starting with Roy.
Personally, I think getting Barbashev off the books would be more effective since he's a bigger cap hit who'll stick around longer. However, if McCrimmon was pressed for time and needed an easy way out, trading the center doesn't hurt.
