These trade rumors are nothing for Pacioretty
Jesse Granger of The Athletic: Vegas Golden Knights forward Max Pacioretty on the having his name in the trade rumor mill recently.
“I played in Montreal for 10 years so this is lightweight stuff. I’ve heard a lot worse. I was a captain too, so you can imagine after a bad year the stuff I heard. This is nothing.”
Pacioretty is coming off a 32 goal, 66 point season in 71 games. During the playoffs he battle injuries, scoring five goals and adding three assists in 16 games.
The Golden Knights have moved out Paul Stastny and Nate Schmidt this offseason, and brought in Alex Pietrangelo. If Pacioretty remains, he could play beside Cody Glass and Mark Stone on the second line.
Mailbag Questions
Jesse Granger of The Athetic: (mailbag) Don’t think the Boston Bruins would do a Max Pacioretty with a $1 million retained for Jake DeBrusk, Zach Senyshyn and a third round pick. DeBrusk is under contract for $3.675 million for this year and next, and will still be a RFA afterwards. While Pacioretty obviously has scored more goals and points recently, he is also over 30 and has a cap hit that is almost double of DeBrusk. The Bruins also don’t have a lot of salary cap space to work with.
The Golden Knights paid a high price to acquire Pacioretty not too long ago and it’s one of the reasons believes they will keep him. Sources have said that trade talks involving Pacioretty (as well as Marc-Andre Fleury and Jonathan Marchessault) haven’t progressed. GM Kelly McCrimmon may just been seeing what type of market there is for them. Given the salary cap situation of many teams, moving big contracts seems unlikely.
If the Golden Knights were able to move out a big salary and create a bit of flexibility, believes they could try to sign former Golden Knight Erik Haula. It would likely cost them $2 million or less, and Haula may be interested in returning. Being able sign Mike Hoffman seems unlikely despite the rumors.
Defenseman Nick Holden and possibly Fleury are waiver candidates. It’s possible that if waived they could remain with the team on the ‘taxi squad’ and not have to be sent to the AHL. LTIR is also an area they could use to get under the cap if someone gets seriously injured before the start of the season.
It seems unlikley that Fleury will be with the team after his contact expires following the 2021-22 season. If he does remain and both sides will want him as a back, it would be at a much lower salary cap hit. The Pittsburgh Penguins may also be interested in him a low rate in free agency.