Another monster trade aggressively brewing in Vegas!
All thanks to the cap hit loophole…
HockeyFeed
The Vegas Golden Knights might have lost the services of captain Mark Stone ahead of the final push for the postseason, they are making the best of it.
With Stone currently sidelined and placed on the team’s long-term injured reserve (LTIR), the Golden Knights have over $7.3 million in cap flexibility to go out and try landing a big fish by Friday’s deadline. On Tuesday, Vegas acquired forward Anthony Mantha from the Washington Capitals.
According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, Vegas is also willing to get the ultimate boost up front to repeat as Stanley Cup champions, reporting the Golden Knights are also going after Pittsburgh Penguins’ Jake Guentzel and were reportedly in the mix for Vladimir Tarasenko.
“I think they are going to try and get the best winger available, and someone said to me they wouldn’t be surprised if they tried to get two.”
That was before the Florida Panthers beat them to the punch on Tarasenko, acquiring the Russian forward from the Senators on Wednesday, in return for for a conditional 2024 fourth round pick (which becomes 2026 third round pick if Panthers win the Stanley Cup) and a 2025 third round pick, per Pierre LeBrun.
After acquiring Mantha, Vegas is said to still be looking for an added boost to yesterday’s acquisition.
Guentzel is currently on the Penguins’ long-term injured reserve, potentially ruling him out beyond March 8, but he might have just played his last game with the team. He is a pending unrestricted free agent carrying a cap hit of $6 million. He has 22 goals and 52 points in 50 games this season and could be what Vegas wants to gamble on. However, it will have to keep in mind that there is a possibility that teams looking to acquire Guentzel might call about extending him before they make their trade offers to the Penguins. He’s also been linked to the Carolina Hurricanes, Vancouver Canucks and Edmonton Oilers.
Both Western rivals Colorado Avalanche and Edmonton Oilers have been quite active on Wednesday, with the latter acquiring centre Adam Henrique and forward Sam Carrick, while the Avs went big and acquired defenseman Sean Walker from the Philadelphia Flyers and star forward Casey Mittelstadt from the Buffalo Sabres.
Let’s say Vegas were to go after him and get Stone back for the postseason, the captain doesn’t count against the cap after that in the sense that he can be replaced on the cap at the trade deadline.
That’s how Vegas could manage to trade for Guentzel and get Stone back for the postseason without, technically, breaking any rules…
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