LAS VEGAS — As the start of free agency on July 1 quickly approaches, the Vegas Golden Knights have one glaring need, and it’s on the wing.
Vegas is deep up the middle, with one of the most talented groups of centers in the NHL. Even if they don’t retain pending unrestricted free agent Chandler Stephenson, the Golden Knights still have Jack Eichel, William Karlsson, Tomas Hertl and Nicolas Roy.
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The defensive group is aging, but is still one of the best in the league as well. Alex Pietrangelo, Noah Hanifin and Shea Theodore give Vegas high-end puck-movers on each pair, while Brayden McNabb, Zach Whitecloud and Nicolas Hague round out a strong blue line.
On the wing, things aren’t as set. As of now, the Golden Knights have only two proven top-six wingers under contract. One is captain Mark Stone, who has played in only 55 percent of the regular-season games over the last three seasons. Stone is one of the best two-way wingers in the league, and he fuels Vegas’ dangerous transition offense when healthy, but counting on him for a full season seems hopeful at this point of his career.
The other top-six option that Vegas returns on the wing is Ivan Barbashev, who put up 19 goals and 45 points in his first full season with the Golden Knights. Barbashev brings more to the table than scoring. He’s one of the team’s best forecheckers and creates havoc that allows his skilled linemates to create offense, but he’s not going to drive offense on a line.
That puts a major emphasis on either extending leading scorer and pending free agent Jonathan Marchessault, or finding a suitable replacement capable of scoring in bunches. Without it, the Golden Knights would enter 2024-25 with a sizable scoring deficiency on the wing.
For perspective, let’s compare Vegas’ top-four wingers currently under contract (Stone, Barbashev, Pavel Dorofeyev and Paul Cotter) to other Cup contenders around the league. The four combined for 55 goals and 92 assists last season for 147 points, which falls drastically short of the top-four wingers other top teams are returning for next season.
The final four teams from this year’s postseason clearly have a lot more offense returning in their top four wingers. For Florida, that doesn’t even include pending UFA Sam Reinhart, whose 57 goals were second in the NHL behind only Auston Matthews.
Here’s how the Golden Knights returning top-four wingers compare to the rest of the Pacific Division:
If Vegas were to re-sign Marchessault, those numbers would jump to 90 goals and 101 assists for 191 points. That’s a huge improvement, but is still well short of the other high-end lineups, and below average in the Pacific Division. That suggests that even if Marchessault does come back, Vegas could still look for more help on the wing.
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Now, part of this is the way Vegas has built its lineup. In a salary-cap world, a team can’t be elite everywhere, and the Golden Knights have invested heavily at center and defense. The hope is their strong center group will drive the offense and elevate the game of some lesser-heralded wingers. Still, it should clearly be the focus for improvement this summer.
There are some in-house options for improvement, mainly the two young players who elevated their role in 2023-24: Dorofeyev and Cotter. Both showed the potential to be every-night NHL players, but they were also relegated to being healthy scratches in each of the last two postseasons. Can one step into an even larger role and be counted on to produce consistently? We shall see.
Another option is 2020 first-round pick Brendan Brisson, who spent the majority of last season with the Henderson Silver Knights in the American Hockey League. He did find the back of the net twice in 15 NHL games and is a natural scorer, so perhaps he’s ready to take the next step in his development. If he does become an NHL regular, his playing style suggests it will need to be on a top-six, offensively-inclined line.
Beyond that, here are the best options on the wing for the Golden Knights to look at. There isn’t much cap space to work with, but if Marchessault isn’t re-signed, Vegas will need to find help through free agency, or via trade.
Free agents
Sam Reinhart or Jake Guentzel
The two biggest prizes of this year’s free-agent class are both wingers coming off fantastic seasons. Reinhart can play both forward positions, but spent much of this past season on the wing for Florida, and was a goal-scoring machine. Guentzel put together his third straight season with at least 30 goals, and scored four more in 11 playoff games with Carolina.
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Both of these players are likely out of the Golden Knights’ price range, but considering this organization’s past, that doesn’t necessarily mean they aren’t options. Vegas is more creative than any team in the league when it comes to roster construction, and won’t hesitate to make cap-clearing moves if it deems them necessary. Neither of these top players seem likely to be Golden Knights, but we’ve seen more surprising things happen.
Teräväinen is coming off a career year, with 25 goals in 76 games for the Hurricanes. He’s a solid top-six option who fits Vegas’ style of forward. He has plenty of puck skills, but is also good in his own end and has maintained impressive puck-possession numbers for several seasons.
Evolving-Hockey projects Teräväinen’s contract to be five years with an average annual value of $6.8 million. He’s four years younger than Marchessault for a similar price, so if Vegas chooses to move on from the franchise’s all-time leading scorer, Teräväinen would make the lineup younger.
If the Golden Knights are looking for a cheaper option who can still produce offensively, Kane checks a lot of boxes. The soon-to-be 36-year-old scored 20 goals and was nearly a point-per-game player for the Red Wings last season. Excluding the shortened 56-game season in 2020-21, Kane has scored at least 20 goals in all 16 of his NHL seasons. Playing with one of Vegas’ top centers, he’d be pretty much a lock to do it again in 2024-25.
Kane also wouldn’t require the same type of commitment as the wingers listed above. He signed a one-year, $2.75 million contract with Detroit last offseason, and Evolving-Hockey currently projects him to sign another one-year deal worth $2.5 million this year. He could be an excellent value signing if Vegas chooses to go that route.
At times this past season, the Golden Knights didn’t look as fast as they once did. Whether that was just a product of being worn down from an injury-plagued season and a deep Stanley Cup run in the summer of 2023, or a legitimate concern moving forward, is for the front office to decide.
If Vegas decides it needs to add some pace to the forward group, Anthony Duclair would be an excellent option. The 28-year-old can play on either wing, and has produced consistently in all of his many stops around the NHL. He’s the type of player who can push defenders back on their heels to open up space for playmakers such as Stone or Eichel.
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Trade candidates
Mitch Marner
The Golden Knights aren’t shy about making blockbuster moves, and the biggest potential trade of the summer would involve Toronto’s star winger. Marner is coming off an 85-point season, and has three other seasons with 90-plus points. He would immediately join Eichel as the most talented offensive weapons on the team, but he won’t be cheap to acquire.
Not only would Marner require significant assets in a trade, but his $10.9 million cap hit would put an even tighter squeeze on Vegas’ cap situation. The fact that he’s also due for a new (potentially more expensive) contract next summer could take him out of consideration, but Vegas has already been linked to Marner by Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.
The case of the former No. 2 draft pick is a curious one, and if the New York Rangers aren’t settled on committing to Kakko long-term, I could see Vegas inquiring. Kakko did just sign an extension with the Rangers, but it was only a one-year deal worth $2.4 million (basically what his qualifying offer would’ve been as a restricted free agent).
Kakko hasn’t been what New York hoped for when it drafted him in 2019, but has played better over the past two seasons. Not only is Kakko the type of player the Golden Knights love to take chances on, but he’d also infuse some youth into the lineup at a relatively small cap hit.
(Photo of Mitch Marner: James Carey Lauder / USA Today)
