The Vegas Golden Knights have signed defenseman Jeremy Davies to a two-year, $2.3MM contract per PuckPedia. The deal is a rare two-way contract that pays north of $1MM at the NHL level. To be exact, Davies will receive $1.15MM in salary at the NHL level and $425K at the AHL level.
PuckPedia explained that Davies’ contract will put Vegas within $24K of the maximum cap relief they could receive by putting Alex Pietrangelo on season-opening injured reserve. Pietrangelo will miss the bulk of the regular season, but hasn’t yet ruled out a late-season return. With recent changes to LTIR usage, Vegas would need to be cap compliant to ice Pietrangelo in a regular or post season game.
With near maximum LTIR relief in place, the Golden Knights are expected to waive Davies when the season kicks off. He would head back to the minors for a fourth-straight season should he clear. Davies has proved productive at an AHL level in terms of scoring and penalties. He led the Belleville Senators’ blue-line in scoring with 11 goals and 48 points in 72 games last season. He also recorded 44 penalty minutes. It was a relatively tame year compared to the 23 points and 90 penalty minutes he recorded in 66 games with the Rochester Americans in 2022-23. He split the two seasons with 35 points and 79 penalty minutes in 66 games with Rochester in 2023-24.
Davies will be a bruising depth piece for the Golden Knights. A seventh-round draft pick in 2016, he has found his way to three points and 12 penalty minutes in 23 NHL games across his career. His last came with the Buffalo Sabres in 2022-23.
Notably, Vegas will leave winger Alexander Holtz unsigned with this move. Holtz scored 13 points in 16 AHL games, and 12 points in 53 NHL games, in the Golden Knights organization last season. Going a full summer without an NHL deal – capped off by Vegas awarding Davies with the contract many expected to be reserved for Holtz – will likely resign the Swedish scorer to a minor-league contract for this season.
It’s not yakupov bad, but man it hurts that NJD could currently have someone other than Holtz…
As I understand it Vegas does not get Pietrangelo’s full salary relief unless they apply for and exception and he is ruled out for the playoffs. Otherwise, they only get the average NHL salary. With rosters due tomorrow, it sure would be nice if someone were asking them what’s actually going on.
The article says, “Pietrangelo will miss the bulk of the regular season, but hasn’t yet ruled out a late-season return.” If they’re going to use his full salary this needs to be resolved somehow. As it stands, the average NHL salary does not get them cap compliant on Monday October 6th.
The Petro comments were met with more optimism that they needed to be. He’s very unlikely not playing this year or next.
I get that it’s likely he’s not playing, but Vegas actually has to do something here. Unless they actually request the full LTIR exemption they only get about $4m of relief and they’re positioning like they are expecting the whole thing. I’m curious why no one in the media is asking if they are applying for the full LTIR amount.
Holtz is getting an NHL deal after Davies gets waived.