Golden Knights: How do you solve the Cap Crunch

With a Vegas team scraping the cap ceiling, something has to give. The team has just shy of $2m in cap space for the upcoming season with 4-5 roster spots to fill. League minimum for all 4 to 5 players still pushes them over the cap. Someone has to be traded, right? Vegas tried to trade Dadonov to the Ducks at the trade deadline in an ultimately voided deal. Now they find themselves in a position where they cannot re-sign players due to cap constraints.

Vegas is in a very awkward situation with their roster. Between having Dadonov, whom you tried to trade, William Karlsson and his anchor of a contract that turned out to be a bad gamble, and the plethora of injuries from Pacioretty, Stone, Lehner, and Eichel. This past season was less than ideal for the Golden Knights, and it led to their first year missing the playoffs since entering the league five years ago. The stark reminder after this season was bringing back the quote from Bill Foley and wanting to win a Stanley Cup within the first five years of the organization. According to David Schoen of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Foley “expects to have more input this summer on the direction the club is headed” after they missed the playoffs for the first time in five seasons. Now we anxiously await moves from general manager Kelly McCrimmon to determine where the future of the Golden Knights will be.

Who could it be?

Now all eyes turn to the names that will be up for the pickings. I will keep this brief as I will make a series of more in-depth pieces on these players soon. The least doubtful to happen, in my opinion, is Max Pacioretty. I could see Vegas wanting to move on from Patches, but no team will want to take on the $7m AAV for someone who struggles to stay healthy. Now the second name on the list is William Karlsson. After an impressive first season in Vegas, Karlsson settled down into his expected role. Producing at an average rate and could arguable be a third-line center at best. I could see Karlsson going to a team like the Bruins and playing with a Taylor Hall and David Pastrnak and being able to return to his 70+ point season performance. Evgenii Dadonov has to remain on the list, and they tried to trade him once. You have to believe they will do it again. The last two are Alec Martinez and Laurent Brossoit; Martinez has the playoff pedigree and a mediocre contract, while Brossoit would be a cheaper backup goalie and likely a cap dump.

I will release the next article going in-depth on the player’s value, the returns in a possible trade, and what the cap space could be used for starting this coming weekend. Stay tuned!

Will the VGK win Game 6/7 or choke away the WCF? The Vegas Fever Podcast

In this episode we review:The first 5 games of the WCF, the VGK lead 3-2We also..Discuss how closing out the Stars will go and how not closing them out will go after leading the series 3-0.Be sure to send in your questions, comments , concerns and emotional outbursts to our twitter DM'sThanks for checking us out! Please subscribe after you listen.
  1. Will the VGK win Game 6/7 or choke away the WCF?
  2. VGK to the Western Conf Final, UNLV reels in a big fish.
  3. The VGK opens round 2, bracket picks 2.0!
  4. Vegas Playoff/NHL bracket update.
  5. 3rd annual NHL bracket picks, another professional team coming to Vegas?

Connor Green

Managing Editor & Writer for Inside the Rink

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Stanley Cup on display on ice

NHL: A Hater’s Guide to the Stanley Cup Final

If you’re finding it difficult to get behind the Panthers or Golden Knights, here are a few reasons to cheer against them. If you’re a Florida Panthers or Vegas Golden Knights fan, you have every reason to tune in when the Stanley Cup Final begins on June 3. You’re one of the lucky ones whose team made it. […]

Read More

Questions Ahead as Championship Duo Enters Pivotal 23-24 Season

The formidable ‘Holy Trinity’ in hockey is a team that covets a: world-class goaltender, defenseman, and centerman. It is a recipe that has a proven track record, with the 2012-14 championship era LA Kings as a perfect example. They weren’t a juggernaut regular season team but were systematic in a seven-game series. The Kings won […]

Read More

2023 NHL Draft Prospect Profile: Jakub Dvorak

The Scouting Report: Jakub Dvorak from Liberec, Czechzia, born on May 25th, 2005, is your typical shutdown defenseman in the 2023 NHL entry draft. What will draw Jakub Dvorak some major interest come draft day is his size. Listed at 6’5″ and 203 pounds, you don’t typically find players with his size and skillset available […]

Read More