The Vegas Golden Knights are coming off a busy weekend at the 2024 NHL Entry Draft that saw the organization draft four players and execute three trades, which involved parting ways with Logan Thompson and Paul Cotter.
Less than 48 hours later, the Golden Knights have some key decisions to make ahead of the start of free agency Monday morning at 9 a.m. PT.
But apparently, the club has already made one of them.
It seems the fate of Conn Smythe Trophy winner and Original Misfit Jonathan Marchessault has been decided, and it does not include a happy ending in Sin City.
End of an era
As of late last night, reports indicate that Marchessault and the Golden Knights were unable to come to terms on an extension, leaving Marchessault to hit the open market.
Losing Marchessault is a massive blow to the Golden Knights.
Not only is he coming off a career-best 42-goal season, but he has been an integral part of the franchise for the last seven-plus years. One could argue that no one has meant more to the Golden Knights than Marchessault, and his value on and off the ice is irreplaceable.
But the Golden Knights will have to find a way to make up for some of the lost raw production.
The name that makes the most sense is Steven Stamkos, who seems to be being pushed out of Tampa Bay. Vegas is reportedly among the teams looking to pursue Stamkos when free agency opens.
Stamkos is a star player and has had incredible success throughout his NHL career. He is coming off a 40-goal season of his own, and he has accumulated 271 points over the last three seasons. In that time, he has missed a combined total of five games.
He has 555 goals and 1137 points in 1082 career regular-season games as well as 101 points in 128 career playoff games. Stamkos has won the Stanley Cup twice and has recorded 47 points in his last 57 postseason contests.
But plenty of teams will have interest in Stamkos, many of which have a lot more cap flexibility than Vegas.
With just four top-six forwards locked in for the 2024-25 season — Jack Eichel, Mark Stone, Ivan Barbashev and Tomas Hertl — the Golden Knights may need to look at multiple players.
The Golden Knights acquired forward Alexander Holtz in the Cotter trade, but Holtz may be better suited for third-line duties.
As far as finding top-six scoring, Vladimir Tarasenko is a possibility. He isn’t nearly as dynamic or impactful as Stamkos, but he played with Barbashev in St. Louis and likely would be a more affordable option. Similarly, Jason Zucker is a Las Vegas native and won’t be nearly as difficult to land, though he’s coming off a 32-point season.
One name that hasn’t been tossed around that could make some sense is Jeff Skinner, whose contract was bought out by the Buffalo Sabres over the weekend.
The contract — an eight-year, $72 million monstrosity — was signed following Skinner’s 40-goal campaign in 2018-19. That year, Skinner played nearly 850 minutes at 5-on-5 (and almost 1100 at all strengths) skating on a line with Eichel.
Skinner might take a team-friendly deal if he wants to reunite with Eichel and have a chance to win. He scored 24 goals and 46 points in 74 games this past year after netting 35 and 33 goals in the previous two seasons, respectively. He recorded a career-high 82 points in 2022-23, and he has topped 30 goals six times and 60 points five times.
Originally drafted seventh overall in 2010, Skinner has 357 goals and 670 points in 1006 career games with the Hurricanes and Sabres, but he has yet to play a single postseason game.
At the end of the day, the best option for the Golden Knights is Marchessault. It’s still possible the two sides could come to an arrangement, but that depends on how the final discussions played out and whether Marchessault would even be willing to listen.
Backup plan
The Golden Knights also need to add a backup goalie to replace Thompson, who was sent to Washington for two third-round picks over the weekend.
Trading Thompson, who was in the final year of a contract carrying a cap hit of just $766,667 (below the league minimum), further complicates Vegas’ offseason plans. The club currently has around $8.2 million of cap space and can exceed the ceiling ($88 million) by 10 percent in the offseason.
Less than two hours after trading Thompson, the Golden Knights moved Cotter and a third-round pick to New Jersey in exchange for Holtz as well as goaltender Akira Schmid.
Schmid is not expected to be Adin Hill’s new backup, however.
“It’s quite likely that he’ll be our No. 3 goaltender and play based out of Henderson,” McCrimmon said. “He is waiver-exempt, so that allows us to potentially go to the market on Monday and add another goaltender that might slot in as the No. 2, as our backup, and that’ll give us, we think, real good depth at that position.”
McCrimmon said the Golden Knights will have to see how things play out.
“We have a really good handle on what [the goalie] market is, what that landscape is, what it looks like, and we’ll make our decisions accordingly. But it takes two parties to come to an agreement, and free agency is free agency. You’re never quite sure.”
Ironically, the most likely candidate for the role might be Laurent Brossoit, who spent two seasons in Vegas, going 17-9-6 with a 2.66 goals-against average, .906 save percentage and one shutout. He also played a key role for the Golden Knights during the Stanley Cup run, going 5-2 in eight games before getting injured in the Edmonton series.
Other available options include Ilya Samsonov, Anthony Stolarz, Cam Talbot and Kevin Lankinen, among others.
None of them are better options than Thompson, though McCrimmon said that Thompson requested a trade; Thompson did not confirm or deny this when asked.
Hitting free agency
In addition to Marchessault, it is expected that five players will hit free agency, including forwards Chandler Stephenson, William Carrier, Michael Amadio, Anthony Mantha and defenseman Alec Martinez. Everyone except Mantha was part of Vegas’ Stanley Cup run.
When Stephenson was acquired in a trade in late 2019, he went from being a fourth-line center with the Capitals to a top-line center and top-six regular in Vegas. He finished second on the team in scoring in 2021-22 and 2022-23 with 64 and 65 points, respectively, and he recorded a total of 75 goals and 237 points in 327 games with the Golden Knights. One of his most memorable goals was his overtime winner in Game 2 against Dallas during Vegas’ 2023 Stanley Cup run.
Carrier was one of the original expansion draft selections and has been a mainstay on Vegas’ fourth line, scoring a career-high 16 goals in 2022-23. He opened the scoring with what turned out to be the game-winning goal in Game 6 against Dallas when the Golden Knights eliminated the Stars to advance to the Stanley Cup Final.
Amadio was picked up on waivers in 2021. Prior to his time in Vegas, he had 16 career goals in 176 games. He will finish his Vegas career with 41 goals and 72 points in 193 games. He scored five goals and 10 points in 16 postseason games in 2023, including the double-overtime winner in Game 3 against the Jets.
Martinez was acquired from Los Angeles for two second-round picks ahead of the 2020 trade deadline. He played a critical role on Vegas’ blue line for the last five years, stabilizing the bottom-four and sacrificing his body as a shot-blocking wizard. His goal in Game 5 of the Cup capped off one of the best shifts in Golden Knights history and was yet another clutch postseason goal for the three-time Stanley Cup champion.
Mantha was acquired from Washington at this year’s deadline for a 2024 second-round pick. He recorded three goals and 10 points in 18 games with the Golden Knights in the regular season but went pointless in three playoff games before serving as a healthy scratch for the final four.
Qualifying offers
The Golden Knights issued qualifying offers to forward Pavel Dorofeyev and defenseman Kaedan Korczak prior to the June 30 deadline.
Dorofeyev, originally a third-round pick (No. 79) in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft, played 47 games with the Golden Knights this past season, setting career highs across the board with 13 goals and 24 points. The 23-year-old has 20 goals and 33 points in 67 games with Vegas.
Korczak was Vegas’ second-round pick (No. 41) in the 2019 draft; he played 26 games with the Golden Knights this season, recording nine points and a plus-12 rating while averaging 16:30 per game.
Ivan Morozov, who recently signed a contract extension with Spartak Moskva in the KHL, has been issued a qualifying offer as well, according to Danny Webster of the Las Vegas Review Journal. Morozov scored six goals and 17 points in 58 games with Henderson in 2022-23 but was loaned to the KHL this past year, where he put up an impressive 11 goals and 38 points in 37 games.
Layton Ahac and Mason Primeau were not issued qualifying offers. Ahac was selected 86th overall in the third round of the 2019 draft, while Primeau was a fifth-round draft selection (No. 141) that same year.
Interestingly, the Golden Knights did not issue a qualifying offer to Schmid, though it is believed he will sign with Vegas. Not extending a qualifying offer leaves the door open to sign Schmid to a two-way deal.
Draft recap
The Golden Knights drafted four players in this year’s draft:
Trevor Connelly (No. 19)
Pavel Moysevich (No. 83)
Trent Swick (No. 180)
Lucas Van Vliet (No. 197)
Connelly was a controversial choice, and that choice has been met by much criticism by the fanbase and media. Connelly was considered a top-5 talent but dropped in the rankings due to questions about his character stemming from multiple off-ice incidents.
McCrimmon was insistent that the Golden Knights did their due diligence and are confident in Connelly’s ability to continue to grow as a person and a player. Connelly is committed to Providence College next season.
The Golden Knights entered day two of the draft with one sixth- and two seventh-round draft picks. The Thompson trade moved them into the third round with the No. 83 choice, which they used to select Moysevich. The Golden Knights said he was the best player available.
Vegas then selected forwards Swick (No. 180) and Van Vliet (No. 197) in the sixth and seventh rounds, respectively. Vegas traded its second seventh-round pick (No. 212) to Washington in exchange for a 2025 sixth-round pick.
Read more about Moysevich, Swick and Van Vliet:
(Photo of Thompson and Marchessault: Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports)