The Vegas Golden Knights find themselves comfortably in a playoff spot in the Western Conference. Furthermore, with several teams around them in the standings, the Golden Knights are buying this trade deadline.
George McPhee deals from a position of modest strength this trade deadline. They carry more than enough cap space to make some moves.
Vegas sees themselves as buyers. The Golden Knights know there are areas they need to fortify in order to make another playoff run.
The Vegas Golden Knights: Facts and figures…
At some point, the general manager faces the specter of the salary cap. Vegas fits easily under the salary cap by $12.22 million. Now come the deadline, those dollars translate to approximately $16.5 million. Their SPC (Standard Player Contracts) stands at 47 currently.
What does McPhee and the Golden Knights need? One thing is defense. Also, the general manager conveys the feeling of being in no rush whatsoever. Cap space tends to do that along with being nestled in a good position division wise.
In the meantime, McPhee gauges the market, making phone calls, and seeing what is out there.
Some needs include a bottom-six winger, perhaps a veteran backup goaltender, and some penalty killing help. Vegas has some unique luxuries including that cap space and lots of draft picks to dangle.
Who else could come to Vegas? Let’s take a look.
Possible Targets For Targets
Joel Edmundson — The defenseman comes at a nice price as far as cap hit ($3 million). His contract expires after the season. Also, Edmundson is only 25 years old. That means he is a restricted free agent so any qualifying offer would be $3.3 million+. His possession metrics hold at -1.4% but have been positive over the past two months. Would St. Louis dangle him to get back a player or higher pick? It poses as quite the question.
Joshua Ho-Sang — Ho-Sang could provide an uptick in secondary scoring. His relative possession compared to the team is +11.25% at even strength. That represents a small sample of ten games. His cap hit stands at $863,333. The New York Islanders do not seem to want the forward around anymore. Simply, he is expendable for a not so expensive price. Shooting the puck is not a strength but passing is and Vegas can always use third-line help there. Again, Vegas has lots to work with for the Islanders. The funny thing is cap space is not an issue for either team.
Ben Lovejoy– Lovejoy could be had for cheap but his cap hit is 2.67 million and he is 34 years old. His numbers on a tanking team are right around average despite a defensive deployment of nearly 58%. He likely would cost just a mid-round pick in the third or fourth round range. This means Vegas could dangle one of their other defensemen to make room for Erik Brannstrom or Nic Hague next season. This is a rental type of deal and nothing more.
Some players to dangle?
Colin Miller — Miller leads Vegas in power-play points from the defense with 11. Overall, he tallied 22 points this year despite missing 13 games due to injury. The 26-year-old defenseman carries a reasonable cap hit at $4 million. That is a price someone may bite at. Like mentioned above, Vegas has a nice pipeline of prospects waiting to fill positions. Arguably, trading Miller would not be a great loss and could help the future even quicker.
Jon Merrill — Merrill plays poorly when he is not sheltered and looks like a deer in headlights. Those are just facts. Since Thanksgiving though, something has clicked. He is tops among Vegas defensemen in Corsi-for percentage and high-danger chances for percentage. That sounds crazy but yet it is true. At a cap hit of $1.375 million, Merrill costs little and could fetch a mid-round pick. The defenseman could also be a piece toward a bigger prize — like Mats Zuccarello or even a Mark Stone.
Cody Eakin — Eakin offers more than say a Brandon Pirri at this point. Pundits objectively may disagree with that. However, come the trade deadline, commodities like Eakin gain some value. His cap hit is far from cheap at just under $4 million and does have another year on his deal. On the other hand, few centers play a 200 foot game like Eakin. Also, he can be that 35-45 point player who kills a ton of minutes on the penalty kill. A package deal could easily involve Eakin.
It is all about buying the right depth piece or pieces now.
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Again, the Vegas Golden Knights and George McPhee are in no rush. What can they do? Time will tell.