Revisiting William Karlsson’s 2019 Extension

By now, fans have heard or read about the current rumors circulating around the Golden Knights offseason. With prized free agent winger Mitch Marner likely going to the open market, coupled with Vegas’ inability to win multiple rounds over the past two postseasons, the fit is already being discussed. Unsurprisingly, the Golden Knights front office would need to shed salary in order to offer Marner anywhere close to market price.

Last summer, there were teams that inquired about Mitch Marner, and Vegas was one of them. They obviously didn’t get there, but I believe Vegas would have been a team he would’ve waived to at that time. I fully believe Vegas is a team he’d be interested in signing with this summer. How they pull that off—it’s going to take a lot of juggling—but you can’t count out Vegas when it comes to making those big-time, big-time splashes. They’ve done it pretty much every year since they entered the league. – David Pagnotta, The Fourth Period

In 2019, the Golden Knights agreed with center William Karlsson on an 8-year/$5.9M AAV contract extension. It was thought to be an extremely fair deal for the player and the organization. In fact, maybe too good of a deal. When the extension was announced, then general manager George McPhee admitted that Karlsson’s contract was so reasonable he could likely move down the lineup in his later years. Or move the contract down the road. Say, six seasons down the road.

The great news with (Karlsson) is that if he ever tailed off at the end of that contract he’s still a really useful player because he’s great defensively and you can play him all over the lineup. – George McPhee on June 26, 2019

Six offseason’s ago the Golden Knights were looking to improve after exiting the postseason in seven games. VGK’s front office were focused on getting the most out of the players that were already with the club. Extending Karlsson was crucial for their 2019 summer plans as well as agreeing to deals with other internal RFA/UFAs.

Even back then, GMGM remarked at how the deal was comparable to others on the roster and was part of a plan to lock in the remaining core pieces. His explanation was simple, sign what we have now because we won’t have any cap space left for the following offseason.

One of the reasons we’ve done this is because we’ve tried to utilize what we call the perishable cap space and get a lot of core guys locked up now for a while because we’ll be tight this year on the cap but going forward, we’ll be in a really good position. And those guys are really our core players, they are at the right age, and they fit what we are trying to build here and we expect to be a good team for a while as a result. The cap certainty helps, you can plan a lot better, and we wanted to use up that inventory cap space. -George McPhee on June 26, 2019

 

Six years later, Karlsson’s eight-year extension is more than working out. VGK’s first 40+ goal scorer has been a consistent, impact player under three different coaches. The more than reliable center has been a key piece in each of the Golden Knights seven playoff runs. In 106 playoff games with Vegas, Karlsson has 31 goals and 40 assists. In 2023, he led all NHL players with 10 even-strength goals in the postseason. He’s been worth every penny handed to him by the 31st franchise. Also, Karlsson is under control for two more seasons.

Any discussion about shedding Karlsson’s salary is just silly talk. Hopefully, the plan back in 2019 wasn’t to trade away a below market, highly successful center. Especially, for an underwhelming playoff performing winger that’ll cost as much as Jack Eichel’s next extension.