McCrimmon: Roster Movement For The Summer Likely Done, Confident In Internal Defense Options
With Alex Pietrangelo’s playing career likely over, the Golden Knights have a big hole to fill on their back end but beyond swapping Nicolas Hague for Jeremy Lauzon (and center Colton Sissons), Vegas hasn’t made any other moves on the blueline. It doesn’t appear that will change either. In an interview for The Athletic with Pierre LeBrun (subscription link), GM Kelly McCrimmon indicated that he thinks his roster is set for the upcoming season. He feels confident that Kaedan Korczak is now ready to step up and be a full-time regular after being more of a depth player through his first few NHL seasons. He also singled out veteran Ben Hutton, a frequent scratch last season, as someone who is capable of stepping up into a bigger role. More than $7.6MM over the cap already (before factoring in Pietrangelo’s eventual LTIR placement) per PuckPedia, there just isn’t much wiggle room for the Golden Knights to try to add to their back end even if McCrimmon was inclined to try to make another move.
Carey Price Trade Not A Necessity For Canadiens
Trade attention has once again zoned in on Montreal Canadiens goaltender Carey Price as the league announces changes to the use of long-term injured reserve and salary cap in the postseason. The future Hall-of-Fame goaltender hasn’t played since 2021, after undergoing meniscus surgery to address a severe knee injury. Montreal has kept him on LTIR, and thus received full relief from his $10.5MM cap hit, in each of the three seasons since. That cap hit and LTIR relief could each be beneficial for teams across the league, but Canadiens’ general manager Kent Hughes told Sportsnet’s Eric Engels that he’s in no rush to find a deal. Hughes said:
We don’t have to trade Carey Price… If we can find a trade to move his contract that makes sense for us and makes sense for another team, we’ll pursue it. But we don’t have to.
The Canadiens are currently $5.93MM over the salary cap, per PuckPedia. Placing Price back on LTIR at the start of the season will bring them up to roughly $4.57MM in cap space, more than enough for next season. That cap relief underlines Hughes’ sentiment of not needing a deal, and would likely force Montreal to bring back another long-term injury in any Price trade. They could balance their budget by swapping Price for a player like Logan Couture from the San Jose Sharks, or even by acquiring Shea Weber‘s contract from the Chicago Blackhawks. Both teams sit roughly $6MM over the salary cap floor as things stand, and could get a hardier budget by paying up for Price’s contract.
As for what Montreal could expect in return, the list of comparable IR moves has run a bit thin. Montreal used Weber’s contract to acquire NHL winger Evgenii Dadonov from the Vegas Golden Knights in 2022. He’s moved multiple times since – most recently in a trade to Chicago alongside minor-leaguer Aku Raty and the rights to Victor Soderstrom in exchange for a fifth-round draft pick.
In the year prior to Weber’s original move to Vegas, Chicago used Brent Seabrook‘s contract to acquire NHL forward Tyler Johnson and a second-round pick. That could be a better structure to hope for – though it’s hard to gauge if the market remains the same four years later, and with the changes to LTIR. With no rush to make a deal, Montreal will have the luxury of sitting back until a strong offer comes through.
Mitch Marner Needed Full-Time Security After Last Year's Playoffs
- New star forward for the Vegas Golden Knights, Mitch Marner, opened up on his final days with the Toronto Maple Leafs at Team Canada’s Olympic orientation camp yesterday. Marner admitted that he and his family required full-time security at his residence in Canada for nearly two weeks after the Maple Leafs were eliminated in last year’s playoffs by the Florida Panthers. At the press conference, Marner said, “The market’s very passionate. They love their team. I know it, I was born and raised there. I’ve been a part of Leafs nation for a long time. But, when your family safety comes into question, especially having a new son, I don’t think it’s acceptable.“
[SOURCE LINK]
- New star forward for the Vegas Golden Knights, Mitch Marner, opened up on his final days with the Toronto Maple Leafs at Team Canada’s Olympic orientation camp yesterday. Marner admitted that he and his family required full-time security at his residence in Canada for nearly two weeks after the Maple Leafs were eliminated in last year’s playoffs by the Florida Panthers. At the press conference, Marner said, “The market’s very passionate. They love their team. I know it, I was born and raised there. I’ve been a part of Leafs nation for a long time. But, when your family safety comes into question, especially having a new son, I don’t think it’s acceptable.“
Silver Knights Re-Sign Papirny
- The Golden Knights’ AHL affiliate announced that they have brought back goaltender Jordan Papirny on a one-year minor-league deal. The 29-year-old has spent the last three seasons in their system but he hasn’t been able to secure an NHL deal. Last season, Papirny played in 28 games with ECHL Tahoe, putting up a 2.50 GAA and a .920 SV% along with four shutouts while getting into a pair of games with AHL Henderson.
Jack Eichel Remaining Patient On Extension
In Eichel’s case, Friedman said he would be “shocked” if the forward doesn’t remain with the Vegas Golden Knights long-term. However, that isn’t stopping the 28-year-old from trying to maximize the value of his next extension. Coming off a career-high 94-point season, Eichel is entering the final year of his contract, which carries a $10 million AAV — a number that’s likely to rise with any future extension.
Mitch Marner Didn’t Think Of Leaving Maple Leafs Until Summer
Winger Mitch Marner was wrapped up in drama and rumors for the bulk of his final years with the Toronto Maple Leafs. A move at the end of the controversial six-year, $65.41MM contract he signed in 2019 seemed all but certain as the summer approached – but despite that, teammate William Nylander emphasized that Marner was focused on the Leafs until the very end. Nylander told NHL.com’s Mike Zeisberger:
I actually asked him during the season and he said he was concentrating on Toronto. I didn’t want to press him on that and let him be because it was obviously on his mind, but his play was focused on helping us. Then I asked him after the season and he wasn’t sure.
Aside from wanting to avoid thinking of looming contract negotiations, it’s no surprise to hear Marner remained invested in Toronto. He was born in Markham and grew up playing for the Vaughan Kings and Don Mills Flyers AAA organizations. Marner moved right down the road for juniors hockey, joining the OHL’s London Knights for two superstar seasons, before being drafted by his hometown club with the fourth-overall pick in 2015. He stayed in London for one additional season, before diving into a career that would lead him through 657 games and 741 points in a Maple Leafs jersey.
Despite the fairytale matchup, Marner’s years in Toronto seemed to be clouded by stress. He was ridiculed for a lack of effort, poor results or attitude, and clashes with coaches or teammates. That includes one incident from the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs, when Marner and Nylander exchanged heated words on the bench. Fans analyzed the event as signs of mounting tensions, but Nylander told Zeisberger that it was nothing to read into. He said that things happen in the heat of big games, and that it’s still tough to see Marner leave the club after nine years.
Nylander emphasized that Toronto will miss Marner both on and off of the ice. He leaves a monumental hole on the top line, after scoring a career-high 102 points in 81 games last season. That peak came after Marner rivaled the century mark for three straight seasons, even coming as close as 99 points in 80 games of the 2022-23 season. His breakthrough should provide the perfect ramp to another dazzling season among the Vegas Golden Knights’ star-studded lineup. After years of playing alongside Auston Matthews, Marner will now suit up next to Jack Eichel and Mark Stone, and should almost certainly provide the boost to help the former reach the 100-point mark as well.
Meanwhile, Nylander didn’t commit to filling Marner’s role on the top line next season. He said that he’ll be open to playing all throughout the lineup, and is only focused on dominating next season. Nylander also posted a career year last season, reaching a career-high 45 goals to round out 84 points, after he posted 40 goals and 98 points in 2023-24. It was Nylander’s third-straight year of playing in all 82 games. He’ll undeniably be the top bet to fill Marner’s impact, though Toronto may need to dig deep to fill the spot Nylander will vacate to step up in the lineup.
Players Who Could Start The Season On LTIR
While only a handful of teams project to need cap relief via long-term injured reserve to open the season, multiple candidates across the league might technically qualify for a placement. Doing so would bar the player from returning until Oct. 31 at the earliest – 24 days from the season start date of Oct. 7.
Avalanche: Logan O’Connor
O’Connor underwent hip surgery in early June. Given the five-to-six-month projected recovery window, he won’t be available until early November at best, putting him past the 10-game/24-day threshold required for LTIR. Colorado, which has $2.10MM in current cap space, will likely place O’Connor on standard IR if they don’t make any other cap-affecting moves between now and October. If they need the relief, though, they could create up to O’Connor’s $2.5MM cap hit in cushion for the first few weeks of the season if they need it.
Blues: Torey Krug
St. Louis general manager Doug Armstrong announced in May that Krug’s career is done because of pre-arthritic conditions in his left ankle that surgical intervention only slowly corrected. Since the Blues only have around $625K in cap space, Krug and his $6.5MM cap hit will be going on LTIR as soon as they need the flexibility for a call-up.
Canadiens: Carey Price
What’s certain is that Price won’t play this season or ever again. He’s entering the final season of his contract at a $10.5MM cap hit after confirming nearly two years ago that his knee injury would prohibit him from suiting up again. What’s uncertain is whether or not he’ll begin the season on LTIR. Montreal isn’t in a great position to optimize its LTIR relief, either by matching his cap hit in excess or getting down to $0 in space before placing him on the list. That’s made his contract a trade chip for teams who might need the relief more.
Devils: Johnathan Kovacevic
Kovacevic underwent knee surgery in early May and won’t be ready for training camp and likely opening night as well. Whether that stretches past Oct. 31 and makes him eligible for an LTIR placement if New Jersey needs cap relief early on remains to be seen.
Flyers: Ryan Ellis, Rasmus Ristolainen
Ellis’ career is over after sustaining a wide-ranging muscular injury in his pelvis just four games into his Flyers tenure in 2021. Ristolainen underwent a procedure on his right triceps tendon on March 26 with a six-month recovery time, putting him right on the edge of potential LTIR eligibility. Philly will have a better idea of the latter’s LTIR deployment potential after he undergoes his training camp physical. With $370K in cap space, they’re in a good position for near-max LTIR capture and will almost certainly at least place Ellis there to begin the year to give them call-up flexibility.
Golden Knights: Alex Pietrangelo
Pietrangelo is already on offseason LTIR, meaning the Knights actually still have to add an additional $1.2MM to their roster before opening night to optimize his capture and unlock his full $8.8MM cap hit’s worth of relief for this season. The team confirmed he requires multiple undisclosed but significant surgeries that will likely mark the end of his playing career, but it’s unclear if he’s actually had them done yet.
Jets: Adam Lowry
Lowry underwent hip surgery in late May and won’t be available until after Thanksgiving at the earliest. Winnipeg likely won’t be formalizing an LTIR placement with nearly $4MM in cap space, though.
Mammoth: Juuso Välimäki
Välimäki underwent ACL surgery in early March. He likely won’t end up on LTIR given Utah’s current cap flexibility ($6.68MM), but he’ll be out until at least early November so he’ll be there as an early-season option in case they need relief for whatever reason.
Oilers: Zach Hyman
Hyman’s inclusion here is on the speculative side. The winger could very well be ready for the start of the season. However, there hasn’t been much clarity on how much recovery he still needs after undergoing surgery to repair a severe wrist injury that kept him out of the Stanley Cup Final. A report in early June indicated there was uncertainty about his status for training camp, with no meaningful updates since then.
Panthers: Matthew Tkachuk
Tkachuk told ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski earlier this month that he’s still deciding whether he wants to undergo surgery to address the adductor issue that hampered him down the stretch and in the playoffs after sustaining it at the 4 Nations Face-Off. All signs point to him opting for it and spending the next two to three months on the shelf as a result, though. Placing him on LTIR is the only way the Panthers, who currently have a cap exceedance of $3.725MM, can be compliant to start the season without shedding a significant contract, something they aren’t keen to do.
Wild: Jonas Brodin
Minnesota has $9.41MM in cap space, but that number will shrink once they re-sign restricted free agent Marco Rossi (or add salary while trading his signing rights). Neither scenario will likely push them into a situation where they need to use LTIR relief, but they might have Brodin and his $6MM cap hit as an option for some short-term flexibility if required. He underwent an upper-body procedure in early June and is questionable for the beginning of the season, so it’s not yet clear if he’ll miss enough time to qualify.
Summer Synopsis: Vegas Golden Knights
Now more than a month into the new league year, the bulk of the heavy lifting has been done from a roster perspective. Most unrestricted free agents have found new homes, the arbitration period has come and gone, and the trade market has cooled. Accordingly, it’s a good time to take a look at what each team has accomplished this offseason. Today, we’ll take a look at Vegas.
The Golden Knights enjoyed a strong regular season last year, posting 50 wins en route to a Pacific Division title. They carried that momentum into the playoffs with a decisive first-round victory over the Minnesota Wild. However, their postseason run came to an abrupt end in the second round, where they fell to the Edmonton Oilers in just five games.
Not content with regular-season accolades or modest postseason success, the Golden Knights were aggressive to start the offseason, pulling off arguably the biggest acquisition by locking up star forward Mitch Marner. General Manager Kelly McCrimmon also made several depth moves to fortify the lineup, and on paper, Vegas appears poised to contend for the Stanley Cup once again.
Draft
2-55 – F Jakob Ihs-Wozniak, Luleå HF (Sweden J20)
3-85 – F Mateo Nobert, Blainville-Boisbriand (QMJHL)
6-186 – F Alexander Weiermair, Portland (WHL)
6-187 – D Gustav Sjoqvist, AIK (HockeyAllsvenskan)
One common downside for Stanley Cup contenders is a depleted prospect pool, often the result of trading away draft picks in pursuit of immediate success. That was the case for the Golden Knights at last month’s draft, where they lacked a first-round pick and made just four selections overall.
They made the most of the situation, starting with the section of Ihs-Wozniak, a forward with high offensive upside. He produced 57 points in 40 games during the 2024-25 season with Luleå HF J20, but truly showcased his talents on the international stage. At the 2024 Hlinka Gretzky Cup, he helped Sweden to a bronze medal while tying for the tournament high of four goals. He then helped Sweden to a silver medal in the 2025 IIHF U18 Men’s World Championship, where he recorded seven points in seven games.
Nobert, 17, produced 67 points in 57 games for Blainville-Boisbriand in the Q, finishing fourth on the team in scoring. Known for his playmaking abilities, the Quebec native took his game to another level last season, nearly tripling his production from the year before. His continued development will be something Golden Knights fans can watch and look forward to.
Trade Acquisitions
F Mitch Marner (from Toronto)
F Colton Sissons and D Jeremy Lauzon (from Nashville)
Arguably, the biggest move of the offseason was Vegas acquiring Marner from the Maple Leafs with a sign-and-trade, resulting in an eight-year, $96MM deal ($12MM AAV). Joining a star-studded group that already features Jack Eichel, Mark Stone, and Shea Theodore, the move signals that the franchise is all in with their efforts to secure another Stanley Cup. While things ended unceremoniously for Marner in Toronto, he has done nothing but produce in his time in the league. Since debuting for the Maple Leafs in the 2016-17 season, Marner has scored 221 goals and 741 points in 657 games, averaging 20:03 of ice time per night. That production was no different last year, as Marner, 28, produced 102 points in 81 games. He added 13 points in 13 playoff contests. The Golden Knights finished the 2024-25 campaign with the fifth-best goals scored average (3.34), third-best goals against average (2.61), second-best powerplay (28.34%), and the 13th-best shooting percentage (11.0%), and those numbers should only improve with Marner in the mix.
Perhaps lost in the shuffle of the Marner deal, adding Sissons and Lauzon as part of the deal that sent Nicolas Hague to Nashville provides Vegas with solid veteran experience and productivity.
UFA Signings
F Tuomas Uronen (three years, $852.5K)*
F Reilly Smith (one year, $2MM)^
F Brandon Saad (one year, $2MM)^
D Dylan Coghlan (one year, $775K)
D Jaycob Megna (two years, $800K)
F Cole Reinhardt (two years, $812.5K)
*-denotes two-way contract
^-denotes re-signing
The Golden Knights got to work before July 1, locking up veteran forwards like Smith and Saad before they could test free agency. Smith returned to Vegas following a mid-season trade with the Rangers, recording 11 points in 21 games. Now 34, his best seasons came during his first stint with the Golden Knights, and he remains a reliable depth option who can still contribute in the top six when needed. Saad, 32, produced 13 goals and 30 points last season, split between Vegas and St. Louis. Like Smith, Saad was dealt to Vegas mid-season and made a strong enough impression that McCrimmon re-signed him before he could reach free agency. The two-time cup champion with Chicago offers quality depth in the bottom six.
The remaining signings add organizational depth. The team announced the deals for Coghlan, Megna, and Reinhardt simultaneously on July 1. While each player received a one-way contract, a spot on the opening night roster is far from guaranteed.
Uronen, who was signed to an entry-level deal back on May 20, offers intriguing upside. Vegas selected Uronen with the 192nd pick of the 2023 NHL Draft. At the time, he was playing for HIFK’s U20 program, but he quickly transferred to the Ontario Hockey League’s Ottawa 67’s after being drafted. A native of Finland, Uronen showcased his offensive abilities last season with the OHL’s Kingston Frontenacs, posting 38 goals and 90 points in 63 games. Internationally, Uronen scored two goals and three points in seven games for Team Finland during the 2024-25 U20 World Junior Championship.
RFA Re-Signings
F Raphael Lavoie (one year, $775K)*
F Jonas Rondbjerg (one year, $775K)*
F Cole Schwindt (one year, $825K)
D Lukas Cormier (one year, $775K)*
Lavoie had an interesting path last season and will no doubt hope for more stability for the 2025-26 year. Last season, he was waived by Edmonton, claimed by Vegas, waived by Vegas, re-claimed by Edmonton, waived again by Edmonton, and finally re-claimed by Vegas before being sent directly to AHL Henderson in a matter of days last October. Injuries limited Lavoie’s effectiveness somewhat in 2024-25, but he still put together a decent 17-10–27 scoring line in 42 games on an underwhelming Henderson squad. When healthy, the 6’4″ winger can provide key organizational depth and quality scoring possibilities. He potted 28 goals and 50 points in 66 games for AHL Bakersfield in 2023-24.
Rondbjerg, a Golden Knights draft pick in the third round of their inaugural 2017 class, has topped out as a serviceable fringe NHL forward, recording 10 points in 76 games for the Knights over the past four years. Schwindt, perhaps the likeliest of the group to make an impact in Vegas next season, appeared in 42 games last season with Vegas after being claimed off waivers from the Flames during training camp last year. In that time, he produced eight points in a bottom-six role but did provide quality defense and holds a career 51 percent win rate in the faceoff circle. Meanwhile, Cormier will look to get back on track after an injury detailed his 2024-25 season.
Key Extensions
D Kaedan Korczak (four years, $3.25MM)
On the second day of free agency, Vegas locked up one of their own blueliners long-term, giving Korczak a four-year, $13MM contract extension. Despite having just one career goal in 77 games, Korczak clearly earned the confidence of the organization last season, which served as his first full year at the NHL level. He was often a healthy scratch over the course of the season, but still managed to record 10 assists, one penalty, and a plus-15 across 40 games. He added 59 hits and 40 blocked shots while averaging 15:04 of ice time per night. With the loss of Hague and the presumed retirement of Alex Pietrangelo, Vegas may have felt it was key to extend Korczak.
Departures
D Nicolas Hague (trade with Nashville)
F Tanner Pearson (Winnipeg, one-year, $1MM)
F Nicolas Roy (trade with Toronto)
The Golden Knights sit with a heap of unsigned free agents, including goaltender Ilya Samsonov and winger Victor Olofsson. That group is unlikely to re-sign with a cap-strapped Vegas lineup, but the Golden Knights will still leave the summer with minimal exits. Hague stands as the biggest subtraction in size and lineup role – vacating an impactful, third-pair role for a surprisingly rich extension with the Predators. He has posted 12 points and a negative plus-minus in each of the last two seasons, but led Vegas’ blue-line in hits-per-game in both seasons. The Golden Knights will lose similar physical prowess in Pearson and Roy – two depth forwards who both managed encouraging scoring from routine roles in the bottom. Roy finished the year with 15 goals and 31 points, while Pearson scored 12 goals and 27 points. Vegas will need to find internal replacements for all three players, and may be hobbled by their departure – but nonetheless found a way to add more talent than they lost this summer.
Salary Cap Outlook
A summer of strategic spending hasn’t yet come to fruition for the Golden Knights. They currently sit $7.64MM over the cap ceiling, per PuckPedia. Placing top defenseman Alex Pietrangelo on long-term injured reserve will give the team just over $1MM in available cap space, though they’ll likely settle square-even with the cap floor after re-signing RFA Alex Holtz. It will be another season of cap gymnastics for the Golden Knights. Luckily, that’s a game they’re plenty experienced with by this point.
Key Questions
How Will Marner Look Outside of Toronto? The brightest spotlight in the league will be trained on Marner as he pursues his first season with the Golden Knights. The 28-year-old winger had a career-year last season, crossing the century mark for the first time with 102 points in 81 games. He’s paced for at least 100 points in each of the last four seasons, but often missed a handful of games for one reason or another. Still, that will be an incredible talent to join a Golden Knights offense already featuring Jack Eichel and Mark Stone. While he’s already played next to some of the best in the world, Marner could find the best setting of his career on Vegas’ top-line. If he does, the Golden Knights could find the X-factor they need to will to another Stanley Cup. If not, they’ll be strapped with a contract that pushes them against the cap ceiling, and a winger who commands attention in roster construction.
What’s Next For Pavel Dorofeyev? The Pavel Dorofeyev breakout was long-coming, and Golden Knights fans finally saw the payoff when the Russian winger chased a massive 35 goals and 52 points last season. The 24-year-old will enter the 2025-26 season with a strong argument for routine top-six minutes, and seemingly plenty of ramp to one-up on his hot-shooting season last year. Dorofeyev recorded a 13.8 shooting percentage last season, well within range of the 13.4 shooting percentage he posted in 47 games in the 2023-24 season. That could shed positive light on his chances to repeat his lofty goal total, especially as Vegas’ offense continues to load up. Dorofeyev is still due for a new contract next summer. It will be the deal that carries him through his prime years, and a price tag set by how well he’s able to maintain his performances this season.
Who Will Emerge As The Top Right-Defender? Vegas has suffered one major blow this summer. Pietrangelo will miss the entirety of the season, leaving the team without a clear-cut, top-pair right-defender. They’re loaded up on the left-side, with Shea Theodore and Noah Hanifin vying for top minutes and Jeremy Lauzon and Zach Whitecloud sparring for the rest. But opposite of them, it seems Zach Whitecloud – who scored just 13 points and averaged 17:31 in ice time last season – sits as the most poised for hefty minutes. He’ll compete with Kaedan Korczak, who just cracked into the lineup last year, and Dylan Coghlan from the minor leagues. But in the end, Vegas could opt to play Hanifin on his off-hand side over all three options. Hanifin finished last season with 10 goals and 39 points in 80 games – six more goals and points than Pietrangelo. Next to the shifty Theodore, the consequences of playing on his backhand could be mitigated. That will be the test Vegas faces, as they tweak the bolts of the defense behind a loaded offense.
Photo courtesy of Lucas Peltier-USA TODAY Sports and Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sports.
How The Canadiens, Golden Knights, And Panthers Will Use LTIR
At the time of writing, the Canadiens, Golden Knights, and Panthers are the only three teams that have negative projected cap space to open the season, per PuckPedia.
Those clubs also have high-priced LTIR candidates. Montreal’s Carey Price and Vegas’ Alex Pietrangelo are either retired or ruled out for the season and have cap hits higher than the amount their respective clubs are in the hole. Florida is likely to have Matthew Tkachuk miss significant time to start the year as he continues to get back to full health from last season’s adductor injury. While they won’t have a whole year’s worth of LTIR relief for him, they still have a clear pathway to compliance to start the season without making a cap-shedding trade.
But while these teams have a pathway to cap compliance, it’s not as simple as making an LTIR placement and calling it a day. LTIR usage isn’t blanket cap relief based on the cap hit of the injured player – the amount of financial relief a team gets is tied directly to how well a team optimizes its roster before making the placement.
There are two methods of going about this. The first, and more common one, is waiting until the start of the season to place a player on LTIR.
That means a club needs to, even if it’s for a matter of minutes via paper transactions, be cap-compliant without LTIR usage before making the placement and using their newfound flexibility to restore their roster. The difference between the LTIR player’s cap hit and the cap space available when making the placement will be the relief pool amount the team has to work with – hence why teams using LTIR to start the year try to get as close to $0 in cap space as possible to unlock the player’s full cap hit in relief.
The second involves the usage of offseason LTIR. If a team opts to place a player on LTIR before the season starts, the relief amount is equivalent to their cap excess. In that case, it behooves a team to spend more to boost the amount they exceed the cap by as close as the injured player’s cap hit as possible.
That second method is almost certainly what Vegas will use. Their roster is currently set to exceed the cap by $7.64MM, per PuckPedia, roughly $1.16MM shy of Pietrangelo’s $8.8MM cap hit.
With the rest of their offseason business done and one roster spot open, the Knights still haven’t signed restricted free agent winger Alexander Holtz to a new contract for 2025-26. Signing him to a one-year deal worth exactly $1,161,429 would allow them to have a perfect LTIR capture when opening-night rosters are due, allowing them the full $8.8MM relief amount throughout the season. That figure is above Holtz’s market value anyway, so it’s unlikely they’d have any trouble convincing him to ink that contract.
At first glance, Florida’s pathway to making things work is more likely the first option, if for no other reason than the fact they’ll need the flexibility to activate Tkachuk in-season when he’s cleared to play. They’re also much closer to no cap exceedance than $9.5MM, Tkachuk’s cap hit, worth of exceedance.
Wouldn’t the Panthers thus look to clear exactly their projected exceedance of $3.725MM via paper transactions that can be reversed after Tkachuk’s LTIR placement? Not exactly.
Usually, teams in that situation have a few young waiver-exempt players on their roster that they can briefly send down to the AHL to achieve the intended result. The Panthers have no waiver-exempt players on their projected 22-player roster, and the likelihood of a claim for highly-regarded Cup-winning depth talent like Jesper Boqvist, Jonah Gadjovich, or A.J. Greer is almost 100%.
With the Cats prioritizing continuity between last year’s championship team and this one above all else, it stands to reason they might simply take severely reduced LTIR flexibility out of the gate. Making no other moves before LTIRing Tkachuk would leave them with only $3.725MM in flexibility to open the season, compared to their potential $9.5MM if they tried to optimize his relief. Still, as they’d need to activate him later in the year, they wouldn’t take full advantage of that $9.5MM even if they had it.
As for the Canadiens, they’re stuck in the mushy middle. Price’s cap hit is $10.5MM, and their projected exceedance is $5.93MM. That means they’d either need to shed nearly $6MM in cap space or add over $4.5MM worth of cap hits to take advantage of his placement fully.
For a team on the rise with playoff aspirations and some holes in their middle-six forward group, the latter outcome is the likelier one. They still only have $4.5MM in flexibility if they decide to go that route, though, pricing them out of a new deal for top centers on the trade market like RFAs Mason McTavish and Marco Rossi without sending a significant salary – potentially Kirby Dach‘s $3.36MM cap hit or Alex Newhook‘s $2.9MM cap hit – back the other way to help make up the difference.
AHL's Henderson Silver Knights Sign Jeremy Davies To AHL Contract
On the second day of free agency, along with signing defenseman Kaedan Korczak to a four-year contract, we had reported that the Vegas Golden Knights had also signed defenseman Jeremy Davies to a two-year deal. As it turns out, the staff at PuckPedia has informed us that Davies’ two-year contract is with the Golden Knights AHL affiliate, the Henderson Silver Knights, which is an AHL contract.
Since his last NHL game, Davies has excelled as a defenseman in the AHL. In his last year with the AHL Americans during the 2023-24 season, he scored 12 goals and 35 points in 66 games. Last season, while playing for the Belleville Senators, the AHL affiliate of the Ottawa Senators, he scored 11 goals and recorded a total of 48 points in 72 games. He finished the season with a +9 rating, which placed him first on the team in scoring among defensemen, with a margin of 25 points ahead of the next player. For context, the Silver Knights were led in defensemen scoring by Calen Addison and Robert Hagg, each of which have moved on this summer.