Coming into this season, David Perron and Jonathan Marchessault were both unaware of their futures. The two friends, both with expiring contracts had been sick of the NHL nomad life. While both were hoping to sign extensions with Vegas, only one was able to agree to terms.
It’s nothing you really think of. In the season you’re just trying to think about hockey. When you start talking that doesn’t mean it necessarily will happen. I was happy to get it over with this season. -Jonathan Marchessault
As the new year approached, many wondered if the Golden Knights would trade Marchessault if they couldn’t sign him to a contract in season. The 27-year-old admitted that he was a little concerned as well.
Yeah it’s always on your head a little bit. I told my agent at some point, if there’s nothing we should think of then I don’t necessarily want to talk about it. I just wanted to focus on my game and see what that brings us. -Marchessault
On January 3rd, the Golden Knights announced they had extended #81 on a six-year, $30M contract. The midseason agreement boosted Marchessault’s confidence.
I think so. You never know what happens, injuries, slumps. I think it definitely helped me. -Marchessault
On the flip side, Perron’s agent and the Vegas brass couldn’t come to an agreement during the regular season. If that remains the case on July 1st, Perron will be free to sign with any team.
Before Perron even hit the ice, many just assumed he’d be moved by the trade deadline. Was he aware the organization could’ve flipped him for future assets?
Yeah, I think early in the year before it started. You get the mentality of what’s best for yourself but for the team too. It snowballed and we kept pushing and pushing and slowly started to change George and Bill’s expectations. -David Perron
As the season went on and the winning continued, Perron felt comfortable knowing he was staying put for the remainder of the season.
People were asking me about trades, and honestly I wasn’t nervous. I was completely confident that I would stay. I believe George did the right thing. You trade guys to improve the team down the road, and to get back to the same situation in three or four years. Why wait if you’re there? You got to go with it and he did that. -Perron
If he was on the trade market, the forward he believes he had the big man in his corner to block any deadline deal.
I think Bill really started to believe in us and started to get excited for the playoffs. -Perron
Needless to say, The Creator made the right decision to keep the gang together. Maybe he believes in them so much, he’ll bring Perron and the rest of the free agents back.
Get ready Vegas fans, this is going to be a crazy offseason. Draft, free agency, and developer camp is right around the corner. There’s no days off at SinBin.vegas.
RJ
I’m so excited to start talking off season now, since I think Vegas is going to have one of the most interesting off seasons in a while. Even more interesting than the expansion off season, which is amazing.
First, this team has a TON of upcoming free agents, most of whom should at least get an offer. Here are the notable ones:
David Perron
James Neal
William Karlsson (RFA)
Colin Miller (RFA)
Shea Theodore (RFA)
Luca Sbisa
William Carrier (RFA)
Ryan Reaves
Tomas Nosek (RFA)
Maxime Legace
Oscar Dansk (RFA)
That’s a ton of dudes to resign. A big reason for this glut is the very nature of the expansion draft. Vegas fans often hear the question “how the heck was James Neal available?” Well, the answer is he was a 30 year old coming off injury in the last year of his contract. Similar logic applies to several of the above players.
The very very good news is Vegas has a bunch of salary cap available. About $26M and they can effectively increase that to about $31M by utilizing Long Term IR relief for David Clarkson.
With all this in mind, here is a possible roster based on not signing any free agents including our own. Obviously this will not be the opening night roster, but I’m on a plane and I wanted to take a look for fun.
Smith-Haula-Marchessault
Tatar-Eakin-Tuch
Lindberg-Bellemare-Carpenter
Kolesar-Tynan-Hyka
Schmidt-McNabb
Engelland-Merrill
Hunt-Reinhart
Fleury/Subban
Honestly, not terrible. Probably not Western Conference Champs again, but who the hell knows with this team.
So at a very minimum, McPhee almost certainly offers Karlsson and maybe Theodore long term contracts. Additionally Miller for sure and probably the rest of the RFA are brought back one way or another. All told I’ll spitball about $15-20M to bring all those guys back.
Sbisa, Reaves, and Legace probably won’t be back unless they accept very very low deals. Good guys, important to our season, but casualties of economics.
So that leaves McPhee about $10-15M for Neal, Perron, and any free agents. That means we get both plus one or two role player FAs. Another option is neither or maybe one on the cheap end plus a big time Free Agent; Tavares or Carlson come to mind.
Dang, that puts this team in an amazing position. Our roster is very good and is going to be even better on opening day a few months from now. Every team in the league is going to have bloggers, reporters, and fans alike renewing their optimism over the summer-very very few have as much reason to as those that follow the Vegas Golden Knights.
McPhee has some work to do, but he has earned our faith. All we have to do is sit back and enjoy the results.
Mike
I agree with you (mostly) about being excited about the off-season. I say mostly because I still haven’t completely gotten over the fact that there aren’t any actual games coming up for a while.
Now for the off-season, I think there’s a pretty good chance that we try to extend Schmidt and Fleury to avoid having to deal with it in 2019.
I think that Nate will probably get somewhere in the $4m-$5m range, which is a big raise, but given how he performed in the playoffs it may still wind up being a bit of a value for us.
As for Fleury, he’s at the point in his career (and personal life) that I doubt he wants to go anywhere else. I think those factors, coupled with what he has meant to the franchise on and off the ice, makes this something that’ll probably get done without too much trouble.
In Karlsson’s situation, I think that we can look back at some of the comments that Marchy made when he signed his extension for an idea of what this deal could look like. I couldn’t find the exact quote, but he responded to a question about whether or not he left money on the table by essentially saying that he wanted a similar deal to what Reilly had because of his respect for him. Many expect some sort of bridge deal, but I don’t think it would be the worst idea to just lock him up for 4-5 years on a similar deal to Marchy’s and keep that line in tact for the forseeable future. When you consider that Evander Kane just signed a $7m/ year deal, and then factor in Karlsson’s defensive acumen, and I think the Golden Knights would have to be happy to lock him up in the $5m range if possible.
In regards to free agents/ trades, I have a feeling that GMGM will wind up being fairly quiet. Tavares is an incredible talent, but not an obvious fit for our style of play. Another issue I see is the fact that he’ll probably cost somewhere in the $10m range and that’s simply too high a price to pay for someone who will most likely be our 2C since 71-81-19 will probably remain our top line for years to come.
I love the idea of bolstering our blue line, but Carlson’s value couldn’t possibly be any higher at the moment and I don’t imagine McPhee spending as much as $8m on him. As for Erik Karlsson, I just don’t think we want to trade away some of our younger pieces to get a guy with a year left on his contract. If we’re in a similar position at the deadline then maybe GMGM makes a bid for him again, but realistically I don’t see anything happening unless Karlsson makes it to free agency on 7/1/19. How fun would 65 be in our lineup though?
What I’m excited most about following is the development of our 2017 draft picks. McPhee has already commented on it being a longshot that we see any of those top picks this upcoming season, but I think there’s a real possibility that Glass and (maybe) Brannstrom are on our 2019 roster. Suzuki will probably be a little farther behind them, with Hague being a very intriguing player to follow if his defensive game and skating can improve. I also wouldn’t be shocked if we use some of our future picks as a package to try to get back into the first round this season. Lots to be excited about!
Joe
This probably won’t be the most liked opinion around here, but, let all of the UFAs walk. There is quite a bit to be had on the open market. JVR is younger than Perron and Neal. You could always send an offer sheet to Zucker. The Wild are up against the cap and still have Dumba to resign. Also, if he hasn’t resigned by July 1, offer Tavares whatever Megabucks is at per year. Not having a state income tax looks pretty good when signing a contract. Now, this all hinges on making sure that you have all of the RFAs signed by then.
Mike
I’m actually okay with not signing any of the UFA guys as well. If Perron would sign for something close to what he’s already been making then I would be okay with it, but I assume he’ll want (deservedly so) more and if that’s the case I think I would let him go.
I’ve been big in the JvR as a Neal replacement for a while now, but I’m starting to think that he may even be more than I’m willing to pay. Totally different style of player, but I’ve seen enough of Tuch now to feel like he’s our Neal replacement. If Tatar can assimilate in camp (I think he can) a second line of Haula-Tuch-Tatar could be very productive and put a ton of pressure on opposing teams with their speed.
I doubt we go after Zucker because he’s not worth the 1st and 3rd rounders we would have to pay Min as compensation.
I’m also not sold on Tavares as a fit for our style of play. He’s obviously insanely gifted, but if he doesn’t fit then that cost is a little high for me.
I want an upgrade at the blue line. Karlsson would deplete the cupboard, Carlson will probably get $8m, which is a bit steep to me. I would love to see if we could get Ian Cole for about $4m. He’s not the most sexy pick around, but he would bring some stability to the d corps and be a huge upgrade from Sbisa.