Vegas forced to make another trade!

What’s the best option?!

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 4 years ago
Vegas forced to make another trade!
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The Vegas Golden Knights still have a lot on their plate… a lot of everything except money! They are currently projected at a cap hit of $84.1 million against the league's limit of $81.5 million, according to Cap Friendly. The Golden Knights have already been active in trying to shed salary this offseason, as they shipped out forward Erik Haula and blue liner Colin Miller in separate trades.

And it now seems like GM Kelly McCrimmon might be forced to make another trade with one asset that will gather interest from several teams. 

According to Jesse Granger of The Athletic, a wide gap exists in contract talks between Vegas and restricted free agent Nikita Gusev, leading the team to possibly trade the Russian forward.

Granger reports that both sides are looking for a two-year deal, but remain as far as $2 million apart in average annual value. 

"We think (Gusev) is a really good player," Golden Knights president of hockey operations George McPhee said. "We'd like to work something out here, but if that doesn't work out we'll look at all options."

While rival teams might be intrigued by Gusev, the forward has yet to make his NHL debut. He did however win MVP of the KHL last season by posting 82 points in 62 games for SKA St. Petersburg and also led the Olympic Athletes of Russia in scoring en route to a gold medal in the 2018 Olympics.

Gusev, who turns 27 on July 8, signed a one-year, entry-level contract with the Knights on April 14 and did not appear in the playoffs. The Knights will need to see if they prefer to squeeze Gusev under the cap and trade different players or will get the better return for the Russian sniper. 

To be continued…