The Vegas Golden Knights turned back the clock the day before the NHL Trade Deadline when they acquired Reilly Smith from the New York Rangers for a dream reunion.
Smith was one of the original “misfits” from the Vegas expansion draft but left the team after they won the Stanley Cup. It signalled that the Golden Knights were open for business at the trade deadline, and they’ll likely be active on Friday.
The Golden Knights are on top of the Pacific Division, six points ahead of the Edmonton Oilers. Vegas believes it has as good of a chance as anyone this season, given the Winnipeg Jets’ past playoff performances. The Golden Knights dropped a heartbreaking seven-game series to the Dallas Stars last season, but that’s likely the most significant threat in the front office’s eyes.
After acquiring Smith, Vegas doesn’t have much salary cap space remaining, but they have been known to find their way around the cap and make things work. William Karlsson’s injury has put him on long-term injured reserve with a hopeful return soon, which will already be a massive addition. However, it looks like Vegas is attempting to get its name in the mix for other big fish.
The question is how Vegas is going to make it work. If Karlsson returns before the playoffs, it will throw a wrench into the Golden Knights’ plans, and some significant salary will need to be moved out to make room for him, not to mention the salary of any players they manage to bring in. The rumor mill has been churning around the Golden Knights on Thursday, which brings us to some dream and nightmare scenarios for the team.
Mikko Rantanen’s reduced salary would be a dream addition
The rumor mill we are looking at from Thursday is Mike Rupp’s appearance on the Pat McAfee show. Rupp connected two trade deadline targets to the Golden Knights: Mikko Rantanen and Erik Karlsson.
Unsurprisingly, the Golden Knights are circling these two names as they’re known to go big-game hunting. While one of these players might not work out as well as they think, Rantanen seems like a great get for a team up against the salary cap.
The interesting part of the Rantanen contract is that the Chicago Blackhawks helped out the Carolina Hurricanes and retained 50 percent of his salary in the deal with the Colorado Avalanche. Rantanen’s current cap hit for the Hurricanes is $4.63 million, but they can retain another 50% if they deal him. The Golden Knights could get Rantanen for the rest of the season at $2.3 million.
You may ask: why would the Hurricanes give a team they could meet in the Stanley Cup Final a superstar winger for pennies on the dollar? That’d be a great question, but you could also ask why they’d consider acquiring him initially if they were only going to trade him before the deadline. Those questions for the Hurricanes are for another piece at another time, but the main point is that the Golden Knights can get a steal.
Rantanen did his best work on the wing alongside Nathan MacKinnon. It has been a difficult transition for him in Carolina as he hasn’t had an elite center like the former MVP. However, a nice consolation in Vegas would be Jack Eichel. He may not be the same player stylistically, but he does have superstar tendencies that Rantanen can feed off. If Vegas leaves the deadline with Rantanen, it could be game over.
Golden Knights’ silence on Shea Theodore could lead to a nightmare move
It’s hard not to be cynical about the Golden Knights’ intentions around the salary cap, but something seems interesting about Shea Theodore’s injury timeline. We have heard barely any updates since Theodore suffered the week-to-week upper-body injury at the 4 Nations Face-Off, which can only lead us to believe one thing: The next time we see Theodore, it will likely be in Game 1 of the playoffs.
Theodore’s extension kicks in next season, but he is making $5.2 million annually this year. Placing Theodore on LTIR would open up a considerable amount of cap space, which would perfectly fit in Erik Karlsson with 50% retained from the Pittsburgh Penguins. The teams could also use a third party to broker another 25% off Karlsson’s salary, which might raise the question again of why everyone is helping out the Golden Knights.
Anything is possible for the right price, and the Golden Knights and Penguins might make another general manager an offer they can’t refuse. We’ll ask if assisting the Golden Knights in acquiring Karlsson is actually helping the team out.
Karlsson’s best years are behind him, and while he might regain his form for a few months to lead the Golden Knights to their second Stanley Cup, it also has just as much of a chance to be a disaster. Acquiring Rantanen at that reduced salary has nothing but positive vibes, but landing Karlsson with the money Theodore opens up has nightmare written all over it.
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