Chandler Stephenson Will Have Lots of Options This Summer
Dave Pagnotta of the Fourth Period joined Steve Kouleas and Luke Gazdic on the Power Play on SiriusXM NHL Network Radio. When asked about the Vegas Golden Knights, Pagnotta stated that Chandler Stephenson played his last game with the team.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
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Luke Gazdic: “Pags. Luke Gazdic. Always good to talk to you, buddy. Let’s let’s switch cities here and go to Vegas, who lost out last night seven games to Dallas. Bit of an early exit for them, but a really good Stars team, and I guess there’s a team that has some decisions to make this summer, too. Right?
You brought in Tomas Hertl for the future. But you have six UFAs up front. Two of the guys I’m looking at and I am interested to see what happens with are Jonathan Marchessault and Chandler Stephenson. Where do you see the next couple of months going for the Vegas Golden Knights here, especially with those two up front?”
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Dave Pagnotta: “Yeah, you know what, the guys, I think that, I think Chandler Stephenson might have played his last game in Vegas, and I say that because of their cap situation. And really, I mean, you’re looking at the marketplace to get a guy as versatile as him who can play center you can play the wing. He’s proven he is championship-caliber. And not just, I mean, and this goes back to when he was with the Capitals as well. So he’s got a Stanley Cup pedigree. He will be a hot commodity this summer.
And for teams that are looking to shore up their their secondary scoring and their second line effectively and get a guy that that has flexibility and where you put him in the lineup and situationally that throughout points of the game. Again, put them up at the dot or keep them on the wing. He’s going to command a ton of interest. And I think given his age and experience, this is a guy that might have priced themselves out of Vegas.
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Marchessault, there was some talk towards, I guess, the beginning of the calendar year that there was discussion on a short-term extension and don’t kind of carry on from there. Once their season wraps up, they wanted to focus on obviously getting into the playoffs and hopefully going on a run, which obviously didn’t happen. But I wouldn’t be surprised to see him even though you know it’s going to be a hefty price tag as well to keep him. It wouldn’t surprise me to see him kind of stick around on a shorter-term deal.
But I think Stephenson is a guy who’s just based on the amount of interest that he’ll likely command this summer, I think he’s probably going to be moving on from Vegas. As much as he loves it there. I think it’s just that the options will be too vast for him.”