A 2023 offseason checklist for the Vegas Golden Knights

Marchessault signed a six-year, $30M deal just months into his tenure with Vegas and it has held up well through the first five seasons. However, it’s safe to say that it’s going to take a higher AAV for him to put pen to paper on an extension, especially this far out from his free agent summer. Yes, the upper limit of the cap is expected to jump, but he turns 33 in December and wingers don’t typically show offensive improvement at that time.

Marchessault has reached the 30-goal and 60-point mark just once in the last five years and as he gets older, he should move more into a middle-six role. Is that a lineup spot that the Golden Knights should be committing a pricey long-term contract to? On the other hand, he’s one of the original ‘misfits’ and while the Golden Knights have made some moves that could be described as callous along the way, it’s possible that they could allow sentimentality to come into play with Marchessault. At this point, an AAV of around $6M on a medium-term extension might be needed. Expect discussions on a new deal to happen at some point this summer.

Try to create more cap space 

At the moment, Vegas has around $7.6M in cap room for next season, per CapFriendly. That amount includes them using Lehner’s full LTIR space and does not count Hill’s contract, one that is expected to carry an AAV of around $4.9M. Basically, the Golden Knights are going to have around $2.7M at their disposal with a couple of forward spots to fill. It’s a manageable situation but is one that would leave them in a spot where they’d have limited flexibility for any in-season activity. While they’re more than used to being in that situation, it’s still one that they might want to avoid.

To do that, they’re probably going to look at dealing from their defensive depth. Veteran Alec Martinez has a $5.25M AAV and one year remaining on his deal. The 35-year-old is still a serviceable piece but is better served as being a depth defender at this stage of his career. In this market, clearing the full contract would be difficult. But even if they’re able to move him with some retention, it’d help to free up some wiggle room.

Failing that, they can look to their depth players. Ben Hutton has an AAV that’s just $25K above the league minimum that could be appealing to a team looking for cheap depth. Meanwhile, prospect Brayden Pachal is now waiver-eligible and if the Golden Knights envision him not breaking camp with the team, trying to move him now for a waiver-exempt asset would open up a bit more flexibility. Doing something like this isn’t necessarily a must but a bit more wiggle room on the cap wouldn’t hurt.

Decide Howden’s future

Vegas has a couple of RFA forwards to re-sign in center Brett Howden and winger Pavel Dorofeyev. Dorofeyev’s contract should be somewhat straightforward as the youngster only has 20 NHL games under his belt, so he’ll be signing for close to the league minimum of $775K. But Howden’s will be a little trickier to navigate.

The 25-year-old is owed a $1.5M qualifying offer by Friday's 4 p.m. CT deadline. However, the offer also carries salary arbitration eligibility which is something the Golden Knights might want to avoid. Howden’s coming off a quiet year offensively with just 13 points in 54 games, but with 279 career regular season appearances under his belt, he has enough of a track record to land a raise in a hearing. Obviously, Vegas can’t afford to give him too much of one.

Do the Golden Knights manage to get something done in the next 24 hours that takes away the arbitration risk? If not, are they comfortable tendering the qualifier? Howden is coming off a nice playoff run and is someone they will want to keep around but there comes a point where he’s going to cost too much for the role he fills. He’s not all that far from that spot, so getting something done soon would certainly be desirable.