Tomas Nosek Re-Signs With Vegas Golden Knights
The Vegas Golden Knights have re-signed Tomas Nosek, according to Darren Dreger of TSN. The deal will be a one-year contract worth $1.25MM. Nosek has spent the last three seasons with the Golden Knights but became an unrestricted free agent today.
One of those talented depth forwards that has made the Golden Knights so dangerous over the last few years, Nosek got his first real opportunity when he was selected in the 2017 Expansion Draft. Prior to that season he had played just 17 games with the Detroit Red Wings, but stepped in and became a regular with the Golden Knights almost immediately. Though he doesn’t bring a ton of offense to the table—in 202 games with Vegas Nosek has scored just 47 points—he’s a capable defensive forward that actually lined up at center for much of this season.
The Golden Knights made their name on rolling four lines of fast, defensively-structured forwards and though Nosek averages just over 11 minutes a night, he’s an important part of that structure. The team likely couldn’t have retained him however without first moving out some money, which is what they did by trading Paul Stastny earlier today.
Winnipeg Jets Acquire Paul Stastny
Friday: The deal is now official, Stastny is a Jet. Vegas will receive defenseman Carl Dahlstrom along with Winnipeg’s fourth-round pick in 2022. The draft pick is conditional on Stastny playing five games with the Jets, according to Craig Custance of The Athletic. This is likely just a safeguard against the possibility of a canceled 2020-21 season.
Thursday: The Winnipeg Jets are working to bring back a familiar face, as Jason Bell of the Winnipeg Free Press and several others are reporting that the team is closing in on a deal for Vegas Golden Knights center Paul Stastny. If the deal is completed, Murat Ates of The Athletic tweets that it will include draft picks headed in both directions.
Winnipeg has long been looking for a second-line center to play behind Mark Scheifele, and for a few games in 2018 they found one. When Stastny was winding down his last contract with the St. Louis Blues, they sent him to Winnipeg in exchange for a first-round pick and prospect Erik Foley, despite being in a playoff run. The veteran forward immediately found success with the Jets on a line between Patrik Laine and Nikolaj Ehlers, scoring 13 points in the 19 games down the stretch. In the playoffs, Stastny was exactly what the Jets had hoped for and trailed only Scheifele, Blake Wheeler, and Dustin Byfuglien in postseason scoring.
That offseason, the Jets made an attempt to keep him, even moving Steve Mason‘s contract out to make cap room. It didn’t work, as Stastny took a three-year deal with the Golden Knights that carried a whopping $6.5MM AAV and was asked to replace some of the production the team was losing from free agents James Neal and David Perron.
Now, two years into that deal and hours before free agency opens, the Golden Knights obviously feel there are better things they can use that cap space on.
The 34-year-old Stastny was still effective this season, but he did take a substantial step backward in offensive statistics. In fact, his 38 points in 71 games was easily the worst per-game production of his career, though that did still include 17 goals.
More than anything, the Jets may be trying to find a way to recapture that magic the team showed in 2018 when they went all the way to the Western Conference Finals with Stastny in the middle of the ice. Or even perhaps motivate an enigmatic Laine who has expressed his frustration in the past at weaker linemates but did enjoy his time with the veteran pivot. Of course, Laine’s name has also been in the rumor mill quite a bit this summer, and taking on Stastny’s $6.5MM cap hit doesn’t leave a ton of room for upgrades to the rest of the roster.
For the Golden Knights, if they’re able to rid themselves of the entire Stastny cap hit they will not only be cap-compliant again, but a lot closer to taking a swing at one of the high profile free agents. The team has been linked to Alex Pietrangelo, though nothing is certain on that front as the Blues re-engaged their captain recently. They have also been trying to move Marc-Andre Fleury‘s deal, which would give them ample space to add on the free agent market. Nate Schmidt and Jonathan Marchessault have also been mentioned as potential trade candidates.
Currently, the Golden Knights project to be nearly $3MM over the salary cap of $81.5MM for next season. While you can operate up to 10% over that ceiling in the offseason, clearing Stastny’s contract off the books would give them a lot more flexibility in the coming days.
Golden Knights Re-Sign Jimmy Schuldt, Reid Duke
The Vegas Golden Knights have worked out new contracts with a pair of restricted free agents. The team announced that defenseman Jimmy Schuldt and forward Reid Duke have re-signed. Both have inked one-year, two-way contracts worth the minimum $700K AAV. AHL salary values were not disclosed.
Schuldt, a top collegiate free agent who turned pro after the 2018-19 season, spent this year in the minors, playing in 52 games with the Chicago Wolves. He notched 21 points and looked comfortable playing defense at the pro level. With just six defenders signed to one-way contracts as of now, Schuldt could be in line for a full-time role with Vegas this coming season.
Duke, who is best remembered as the first player ever signed by the Golden Knights, struggled through his first pro season three years ago but has found his role as a two-way contributor in the years since. Duke may not have NHL upside right now but the 24-year-old still has time to improve.
Golden Knights Re-Sign Gage Quinney
While speaking following the conclusion of the draft, Golden Knights GM Kelly McCrimmon told reporters, including Jesse Granger of The Athletic (Twitter link) that the team has re-signed Gage Quinney to a one-year deal. Financial terms were not disclosed.
The 25-year-old made his NHL debut this past season, getting into three games with Vegas where he recorded an assist while playing just under ten minutes a night. Quinney was one of their top scorers with AHL Chicago, however, picking up 17 goals and 19 assists in 46 games; that performance wasn’t enough to get him on their playoff roster, however.
McCrimmon indicated that he expects Quinney to once again start in the minors next season and be a recall option as the year goes on. He does have one year of waiver exemption remaining before becoming eligible in 2021-22.
Vegas Golden Knights Re-Sign Chandler Stephenson
6:05 PM: The team officially announced the signing, confirming the four-year, $11MM terms.
2:07 PM: The Vegas Golden Knights have reached a new contract with restricted free agent Chandler Stephenson according to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. The new four-year deal will carry an average annual value of $2.75MM. PuckPedia reports the full breakdown:
- 2020-21: $1.625MM
- 2021-22: $3.025MM
- 2022-23: $3.125MM
- 2023-24: $3.225MM
Stephenson, 26, ended up in Vegas last December through a trade with the Washington Capitals and cost the team just a fifth-round pick. Despite winning a Stanley Cup with the Capitals in 2018, Stephenson still hadn’t really shown his full potential. That’s exactly what happened in Vegas though, as he finally got a chance to line up at center on a regular basis and ended up scoring eight goals and 22 points in just 41 games.
This contract keeps him in the lineup at a reasonable cost, but the Golden Knights do have some cap issues to deal with in the coming days. The team is trying hard to move Marc-Andre Fleury, but are well over the $81.5MM cap with spots on the roster to fill and improvements to be made.
Snapshots: First Overall, Fleury, Season Start
The New York Rangers have received “plenty” of calls on the first-overall pick before tonight’s draft according to Frank Seravalli of TSN, but continue to rebuff those interested. Seravalli reports that Rangers even received an offer from the Los Angeles Kings to swap top picks (the Kings hold the second-overall selection) but have “zero intention” of moving off number one.
That would certainly suggest that the Rangers agree with the rest of the world and will select Alexis Lafreniere first this evening. While Quinton Byfield and Tim Stuetzle are supremely talented players that will make their respective franchises very happy, there’s just no comparison to the potential that Lafreniere brings as a do-it-all superstar. The 18-year-old winger has won the CHL Player of the Year award in each of the last two seasons and showed the world what kind of a competitor he was at the World Juniors, physically dominating his opponents and returning from a knee injury to help Canada win a gold medal (and take home the tournament MVP honors).
- The Vegas Golden Knights are trying hard to move Marc-Andre Fleury, as Seravalli reports on TSN’s Insider Trading that they are trying to encourage teams to act as a “broker” and take on some of Fleury’s cap hit in a three-team deal. The Toronto Maple Leafs did something similar for Vegas this season when they assumed part of Robin Lehner‘s salary in exchange for a fifth-round pick, but the Golden Knights are offering an even bigger prize to teams willing to help them facilitate a Fleury trade. Seravalli reports that Vegas GM Kelly McCrimmon has offered a second-round pick to that broker team, but so far that hasn’t been enough to eat the $3.5MM that the Golden Knights are hoping for. Instead, teams like the Carolina Hurricanes who have been involved could be asking for as much as a first- and second-round pick in order to take on that much salary over the final two seasons of Fleury’s deal.
- While the hockey world goes crazy over this week of draft and free agent frenzy, remember that the 2020-21 season is not going to start for quite some time. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet confirmed today what many have speculated on, that the league is now looking at January 1, 2021 as a potential start date for next season. Previously, the league had listed December 1 as the target, but that always seemed optimistic.
Vegas Golden Knights Looking For Third Team To Aid In Fleury Trade
With the writing on the wall after the Vegas Golden Knights announced the signing of Robin Lehner to be their long-term goaltender, many have wondered what general manager Kelly McCrimmon plans to do with their former franchise goaltender, Marc-Andre Fleury, who still has $7MM AAV on the team’s books for the next two years. Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston reported Saturday evening on Sportsnet’s Hockey Central that they are currently looking into finding a third team that can help retain some of Fleury’s salary before finding a new home for the veteran netminder.
“I think one of the options that I think Kelly McCrimmon and the Vegas Golden Knights have at least started to explore,” said Johnston, “is whether they may be able to use an intermediary team as part of their three-way deal in which that team is the one that retains part of Fleury’s salary in order to make this kind of transaction work.”
The Golden Knights did something similar at the trade deadline in February to acquire Lehner when they had the Chicago Blackhawks first trade Lehner to Toronto for prospect Martin Dzierkals first, while retaining half of Lehner’s $5MM salary ($2.5MM). The Leafs then retained $1.1MM and received a Vegas 2020 fifth-round pick for the transaction for sending Lehner to Vegas at a much cheaper price, which came out to just a $1.4MM cap cost for the Golden Knights. Now Vegas is trying to do that once again.
Of course with a up to 20 goaltending candidates who could move to a new location this offseason, Vegas might have more of a challenge than most offseasons. Fleury, who only appeared in four games during the Golden Knights’ playoff run to the Western Conference Finals, did fare well in his limited time, suggesting he still has quite a bit to offer a team, looking for a veteran tandem goaltender. He finished the playoffs with a 2.27 GAA and a .910 save percentage. However, his regular season was a little less impressive with a 2.77 GAA and a .905 save percentage in 49 games.
What teams might be interested remains unknown, although The Athletic’s Rob Rossi reports that while it’s unlikely, the Pittsburgh Penguins haven’t given up on the possibility of bringing Fleury back as a tandem with newly signed Tristan Jarry. However, the transaction would likely require quite a bit of creativity to make a move like that work, considering the delicate state of the Penguins’ cap situation.
Vegas, of course, could still opt to buy Fleury’s contract out as the buyout window doesn’t close until Tuesday afternoon, but then would leave the Golden Knights stuck with $2.58MM in 2020-21, $3.08MM in 2021-22 and $2.08MM in 2022-23 and 2023-24, something the team would prefer to avoid.
Vegas Golden Knights, Robin Lehner Agree To Five-Year Extension
As anticipated for nearly a month now, the Vegas Golden Knights and goaltender Robin Lehner have agreed to a five-year, $25MM contract extension. The deal has been officially announced with plenty of social media fanfare in typical Knights fashion. Lehner would have been a free agent and highly sought-after commodity when the market opened next Friday, but instead will stay in Las Vegas. PuckPedia reports that the deal breaks down as follows:
2020-21: $1MM salary, $2MM signing bonus, eight-team NTC
2021-22: $5MM salary, eight-team NTC
2022-23: $6.5MM salary, eight-team NTC
2023-24: $6MM salary, five-team NTC
2024-25: $4.5MM salary, five-team NTC
This new deal is a win-win for both sides. Despite playing at an elite level for the past three seasons, Lehner has only landed one-year contracts and played for fours different team in that span. His goal has always been to find a long-term home and his fit with Vegas has been obvious. At a $5MM AAV, this deal may not be at the top of Lehner’s potential market value, but it provides him with security and the chance to compete for a Stanley Cup each year. As for the Knights, goaltending was not considered a major area of need when the team acquired Lehner at the trade deadline as the intended backup to Marc-Andre Fleury, but it would have become an issue down the road as the 35-year-old Fleury neared the end of his contract with his play continuing to slip. Vegas has merely solved their problem in net before it had a chance to occur. Of course, Fleury’s days with the team are now numbered as Vegas likely cannot afford to keep both goalies, even at a very fair price for Lehner. With limited cap space this off-season, the Golden Knights will have to move their veteran keeper and officially hand the starting job to Lehner.
The other player impacted by this deal is UFA-to-be Jacob Markstrom. With the 29-year-old Lehner off the market, the 30-year-old Markstrom is now the clear-cut best available free agent goalie and will see an increase in his leverage to command a term and salary that could come in higher than Lehner’s.
TSN’s Frank Seravalli was to the first to report that the deal had been agreed upon to earlier today.
Offseason Keys: Vegas Golden Knights
The offseason is now upon us with the Stanley Cup being awarded earlier this week. Having covered the teams that weren’t a part of the NHL’s return and the ones ousted in the Qualifying Round and the first two official rounds, we shift our focus to the ones that were eliminated in the Conference Finals. Next up is a look at Vegas.
This past season was an interesting one for the Golden Knights. They surprisingly fired Gerard Gallant midseason and brought in Peter DeBoer (who coached the Sharks to a first-round upset over Vegas the year before) as his replacement. They were quite sharp in the early going in the playoffs despite a rather public goaltending controversy before they were ousted by Dallas in the Western Conference Final. On the surface, it would seem like GM Kelly McCrimmon only has some tinkering to do but if they want to make a splash, they’ll have some work to do to make that happen.
Clear Up Cap Room
It’s a familiar refrain for many teams this offseason but with Vegas being a speculative option for pending top free agent Alex Pietrangelo, they would need to free up some cap space first. If they want to keep Robin Lehner, that will also require some financial flexibility to be opened up. Even if they simply want to retain their pending free agents, you guessed it, they’ll need to free up some money.
As things stand, Vegas has just over $76.5MM in commitments for next season to 18 players, per CapFriendly. Considering they’ll need most of that remaining room simply to fill out the rest of their forwards and back end, that means that any significant acquisition (or re-signing) is going to require a notable player heading out the door.
With Cody Glass likely to push for a bigger role next year and a weak free agent class down the middle, the time may be right to explore a Paul Stastny trade. The veteran has a $6.5MM AAV for one more year and only a 10-team no-trade list which could make him appealing to some teams looking for more of an impact player. Winger Alex Tuch is coming off of a down year which has him in early speculation as well although he’s still just 24 and has six years left on his deal with a $4.75MM price tag. The late-season addition of Alec Martinez could give them some flexibility to deal from their back end as well.
On the one hand, it’s hard to believe that a team that’s three years old is facing salary cap difficulty already but when you look at the talent on their roster, it’s not so surprising. If they want to add another impact player though, they’ll also have to subtract from their core to make it happen.
Make A Goaltending Decision
When Lehner was brought in at the trade deadline, the original thought was that he’d allow them to give Marc-Andre Fleury a bit of rest down the stretch and give them starter-caliber goaltending in the stretch run. That’s not exactly how things played out. After the post-stoppage training camp, Lehner emerged as the front-runner for the starting job and that’s how it played out as he made 16 of their 20 playoff starts, leading Fleury’s agent Allan Walsh to post a since-deleted tweet depicting a sword bearing DeBoer’s name stabbing Fleury in the back.
Not surprisingly, that has led to plenty of speculation about Fleury’s willingness to stick around for next season although he has indicated that his preference is to stay. Meanwhile, there was speculation last month that Vegas and Lehner were nearing a long-term contract extension although that hasn’t yet materialized.
Notwithstanding the controversy in the early going in the playoffs, it’s difficult to envision Vegas keeping both around. Both want to be starters and, again, they’d need to clear out a fair bit of salary to make it happen.
From a win-now perspective, keeping Lehner would seemingly be the way to go. At 29, he’s still in the prime of his career while Fleury turns 36 next month. He’s still a quality goaltender but his days of being a 60-game starter are likely over. However, trading him would carry some challenges as he still has two years left on a contract that carries a $7.5MM AAV. They can retain up to 50% of that in a trade but is that something they’re going to want to do? A buyout would give them some short-term flexibility but add more than $2MM onto the cap for two years after the deal is set to expire. Meanwhile, Lehner isn’t interested in another short-term contract so taking a short-term pact with an agreement to do something more lucrative when Fleury’s deal is up isn’t in the cards.
They’d like to keep both but doing so may be too pricey. In that case, McCrimmon has a week to decide which one he’d like to keep with Lehner set to be one of the top goalies available on the open market.
Add Defensive Depth
With Deryk Engelland playing a minimal role down the stretch and not at all in the playoffs, it seems as if he may be on his way out as a free agent. Jon Merrill is also set to hit unrestricted free agency as well. While Zach Whitecloud held his own in the playoffs, he’s still relatively inexperienced and although they have some youngsters with some promise including Nic Hague, more development time would certainly be beneficial.
With that in mind, looking to add a depth free agent or two is something McCrimmon may be looking to do independent of any of his other potentially bigger plans. Finding someone that can serve in a sixth or seventh role would be ideal but they’ll need to find someone who is willing to play for close to the league minimum to give them as much flexibility to re-sign their pending restricted free agents (headlined by Chandler Stephenson who had 22 points in 41 games after being acquired by Washington). On top of that, a veteran that could start in the minors but be recalled in case injuries arise may also be needed with Jaycob Megna set to hit the open market as well.
It’s not a particularly exciting type of player to target but it certainly appears that their in-season flexibility is going to be limited. If they can get a veteran or two on the cheap now, that might be enough to keep them from needing to add more blueline help when the 2021 trade deadline rolls around.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Chicago Blackhawks Trade Dylan Sikura
The Chicago Blackhawks have traded Dylan Sikura to the Vegas Golden Knights in exchange for a familiar face. Brandon Pirri, who started his career with the Blackhawks, will be coming back to Chicago in the one-for-one deal.
Despite strong numbers in the minor leagues, Sikura never seemed to fit into the Blackhawks plan and has played just 47 NHL games since turning pro in 2018. He’s scored just a single goal in those games and recorded 14 points, not nearly enough for a player of his offensive nature.
In Vegas, perhaps Sikura will be given a bigger opportunity to show what he can do, but that chance wasn’t going to come in Chicago. He’s heading into the final year of his current deal and can become a Group VI unrestricted free agent if he fails to play in 33 NHL games next season.
Pirri meanwhile is a much more proven NHL commodity, though he comes with warts of his own. Now 29, the Blackhawks second-round pick from 2009 has shown an aptitude for scoring goals at the highest level but not a lot else. Pirri has 72 tallies in his 275-game NHL career, but just 49 assists to go with it. In his best offensive year, he scored 22 times with the Florida Panthers and amazingly recorded just two assists.
Technically Pirri will be staying put, given he has spent the last three seasons playing most of his games with the Chicago Wolves of the AHL. The Golden Knights have changed their affiliate to Henderson, Nevada, but Pirri could very well stay in Chicago if he can make the Blackhawks roster. He comes on the final year of his contract and carries a $775K cap hit.