The Golden Knights may not be shopping Pacioretty but they are talking to teams
Greg Wyshynski: Checked in and don’t believe Max Pacioretty is being shopped by the Vegas Golden Knights. If they did make him available, believe that his no-trade clause would cover some of the potential teams that have been mentioned.
- Frank Seravalli: “One problem, Greg: my report wasn’t about Pacioretty’s NTC, or the difficulty of a deal, and it didn’t include any destinations. Have the Golden Knights been trying to trade Max Pacioretty? The answer to that is yes. That’s the report. That’s it.”
The Golden Knights are over the cap and will need to clear some space
Jesse Granger of The Athletic: Sources confirmed that the Vegas Golden Knights have talked to teams about Max Pacioretty, Jonathan Marchessault and Marc-Andre Fleury. It doesn’t mean that they will be traded, but they are seeing what type of market there is for them.
The Golden Knights are just under $1 million over the salary cap.
A league source said they were “aggressively shopping” Pacioretty and Marchessault, with a team source saying they have just explored the idea.
Trading Pacioretty doesn’t make sense (in Granger’s opinion) for team that is in a win now mode. Scoring depth may be one area of concern for the team even before they move anyone. Pacioretty led the team with 32 goals last season and is their best pure scorer.
The Golden Knights didn’t get much of return for Paul Stastny and Nate Schmidt, and if they moved any of Pacioretty, Marchessault or Fleury, the return may not be much. The Golden Knights might even have to add a draft pick to the deal to get someone to take on the salary. Retaining some salary may have to happen, which in a way defeats the purpose of trading one of them.
Waiving someone like Nick Holden or even Fleury and sending to the AHL would save them $1.075 million.
The free agent market has some players who may interest the Golden Knights, like Mike Hoffman, but a source said there has been no communication. Switching Pacioretty with Hoffman doesn’t make a lot of sense.
Don’t believe the Golden Knights are actually shopping Pacioretty, but putting his name out there to see what type of interest there is.
Adam Gretz of NBC Sports: Teams that have the space to take on Max Pacioretty’s contract with the having to have the Golden Knights retain salary or send them a bad contract: Florida Panthers, Columbus Blue Jackets, Detroit Red Wings, Ottawa Senators, Nashville Predators, Los Angeles Kings, and New Jersey Devils.
The Blues Jackets have just over $9 million in cap space but still need to re-sign Pierre-Luc Dubois.
The Senators, Red Wings and Kings are rebuilding and may not be in the market for a 32-year old winger at $7 million per.
The Predators are looking for scoring and would be a fit.
The Devils could use some scoring from the wing. Nikita Gusev and Kyle Palmieri will be free agents after the season and may not be back,
THe Panthers have almost $8.5 million and lost their top-two goal scorers last season in Evgenii Dadonov and Mike Hoffman.