Sportsnet: Elliotte Friedman and Jeff Marek on 32 Thoughts: The Podcast – 32 Snapshots, on some of the Vegas Golden Knights’ pending free agents that are going to be interesting to follow this season.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Marek: “They lose Reilly Smith. They retain Ivan Barbashev. And so they’re pretty much coming back with an identical squad that won the Stanley Cup last season.
Here’s my question. How much of a shadow, is it a big shadow, is it a tiny shadow, do the contracts, the expiring contracts of players like Jonathan Marchessault and Chandler Stephenson, how big of shadow does that cast on this season?”
Friedman: “Well, I would add another one to that.”
Marek: “Alec Martinez?”
Friedman: “Well, he’s a good one but I would add even another one to that, and that’s William Carrier. Like that has been a good player for them. That was a great expansion pickup for the Golden Knights.
Look, I think the top ones that they’re probably gonna worry about are Marchessault and Stephenson. And Stephenson’s coming off a great deal at $2.75 million.
You know, Marchessault will be the biggest name because he’s an original misfit. He had an unbelievable playoff.
Look, we know what’s going to happen here. Vegas will make a business decision. That’s what they always do. If Marchessault doesn’t get extended, in the future they will take care of him. He will be a Golden Knight forever. But they will make a business decision on him. It all comes down to, what they think they can fit and what he wants.
Again, the same thing with Stephenson. You know, Stephenson’s an interesting one cause he’s shown that he’s an elite center. He’ll be 30 in April. So he’s still got a lot of years left in him. Marchessault’s a little bit older. He’s going to be 33 in December.
But I think Stephenson might actually be the harder one to sign because he’s a center and he’s still 30 years old. And those guys get paid.
But we know what Vegas will do. They will decide what’s their best business and they will go from there.”