With the 2019-20 NHL season on hold we are going to review where each NHL team stands at this moment until the season resumes. Here we take a look at the long-term outlook for the Vegas Golden Knights.
Pending Free Agents
- Robin Lehner (UFA)
- Ryan Reaves (UFA)
- Jon Merrill (UFA)
- Deryk Engelland (UFA)
- Chandler Stephenson (RFA)
- Nick Cousins (RFA)
- Tomas Nosek (UFA)
The Core
If you showed a non-hockey fan the salary structures of all 31 NHL teams, they’d probably not choose the Golden Knights as the team that’s only in the middle of its third season.
Rather than looking like they just entered the NHL, the Golden Knights are remarkably “established.” Consider their significant long-term commitments, which include luring players to Vegas:
- Mark Stone, 27, $9.5M AAV through 2026-27.
- Max Pacioretty, 31, $7M, 2022-23.
- Marc-Andre Fleury, 35, $7M, 2021-22.
- William Karlsson, 27, $5.9M, 2026-27.
- Nate Schmidt, 28, $5.95M, 2024-25.
- Shea Theodore, 24, $5.2M, 2024-25.
- Jonathan Marchessault, 29, $5M, 2023-24.
- Reilly Smith, 29, $5M, 2021-22.
- Alex Tuch, 23, $4.75M, 2025.26.
That’s a lot of money, quite a bit of term, and many of those contracts include no-movement and/or no-trade clauses. Our Golden Knights are all grown up, already, folks.
On the bright side, a lot of those contracts are quite team-friendly. Theodore at $5.2M and Karlsson at $5.9M both stand out among the best deals (at least after Marchessault took a step back, and Tuch’s dealt with injury issues).
Few teams boast a strong mix of two top lines and some nice, prime-age defensemen at reasonable prices for considerable terms, let alone one that wouldn’t be old enough to go to Kindergarten. Yet, here we are with the Golden Knights.
[PHT Power Rankings: Where do Golden Knights rank among best and worst long-term outlooks?]
Long-term needs for Golden Knights
For some time, the Golden Knights experienced a serious need for a backup behind Marc-Andre Fleury. Considering that he’s 35, they had to know that MAF-or-bust wasn’t going to work forever. It sunk in 2019-20, to the point that they brought in Robin Lehner.
With Lehner being splendid during the past two years, and being much younger (in hockey terms) at 28, I can’t help but wonder if Vegas might try to be bold and keep Lehner around.
Doing so would require some juggling, possibly including trying to convince MAF to accept a trade ... but it’s something the Golden Knights should at least consider.
Beyond figuring out goaltending depth one way or another -- this free agent crop does look good, even beyond Lehner -- Vegas faces the challenges most competitive teams do during this salary cap era. While I’d argue that Vegas is deeper than most, the Golden Knights could still use more help up and down the lineup.
Long-term strengths for Golden Knights
Under the assumptions you’d make about an expansion team, you’d expect the Golden Knights to possess a strong prospect pool. That they do, with the Golden Knights placing 10th on Scott Wheeler’s rankings at The Athletic (sub required), as one recent example.
When you pour over the details, the Golden Knights compiling a strong pool gets more impressive.
After all, the Golden Knights haven’t ever drafted higher than sixth (Cody Glass in 2017). They didn’t make a first-round selection in 2018, and only picked 17th (Peyton Krebs) in the 2019 NHL Draft.
In enjoying unexpected contention, Vegas also paid up for rentals and significant additions, bleeding picks and prospects like Erik Brannstrom and Nick Suzuki.
Despite losing key assets, the Golden Knights still managed to bulk up on prospects, giving them a strong chance of supplementing their current stars as they get older. Ideally, a Glass or Krebs may pick up the slack when players like Pacioretty run out of steam.
Beyond Pacioretty and Fleury, a lot of key Golden Knights are either in or around their primes. That Stone price tag might eventually be rough, but right now he’s a two-way superstar, and the Golden Knights can win plenty of best-on-best battles.
When you ponder the big picture, few teams enjoy a better long-term outlook than the Golden Knights.
MORE ON THE GOLDEN KNIGHTS:
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James O’Brien is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @cyclelikesedins.
