Ryan Kesler traded to Vegas in clear cap circumvention move

Just minutes before the NHL's 3pm ET trade deadline ESPN insider Emily Kaplan reported that the Vegas Golden Knights had traded forward Evgeni Dadonov and his $5 million annual salary to the Anaheim Ducks in a cap clearing move for Vegas.

TSN insider Chris Johnston is however reported that there was a hiccup in the deal, presumably because the Golden Knights traded for a retired player in Ducks forward Ryan Kesler.

If you're wondering why Vegas would be interested in acquiring Kesler, a player who hasn't played since 2019, it's because Kesler's entire $6.875 million salary can be placed on injured reserve and removed from the team's salary cap. Kesler's deal also happens to expire this upcoming offseason, while Dadonov is still on the books for $5 million next season. 

So, in effect, the Golden Knights are trying to free up $5 million in cap space both for this season and next season by acquiring Kesler in exchange for Dadonov. The question was, would the NHL allow it? After hours of waiting for a ruling from the NHL, the league officially approved the deal.

Check it out:

So the Golden Knights absorb both Kesler's and John Moore's contracts and give up Dadonov and a 2nd round pick to the Ducks. In effect though, the Golden Knights just dumped Dadonov along with a 2nd round pick to free up $5 million in cap space.

To me, this is a pretty clear circumvention of the NHL's salary cap. After all, the Golden Knights already have a superstar player on longtime IR in order to get Jack Eichel into the lineup. Mark Stone is sitting out until the playoffs with some sort of mystery injury, not unlike the Tampa Bay Lightning did last season with Nikita Kucherov. In both Vegas' and Tampa's situations they have been blatantly circumventing the NHL's salary cap rules but clearly the NHL feels differently. I will say though that I'm excited to see both Stone and Eichel together on the same PP unit.