The Vegas Golden Knights captured their first Stanley Cup Tuesday night and while their focus right now is just on celebrating the win, they do have some decisions to make heading into the offseason if they want to be poised for a repeat.
Brett Howden is the only restricted free agent on the team's roster this summer, but they have a few unrestricted free agents up front in Ivan Barbashev, Teddy Blueger, and Phil Kessel, as well as in the crease with Adin Hill, Laurent Brossoit and Jonathan Quick. That means no major pieces require new contracts, although Barbashev and Hill would be nice to bring back. They currently have over $3 million in cap space if everyone is healthy next season to start (including Robin Lehner, which isn’t certain).
Tyler Yaremchuk and Frank Seravalli talked about what moves the Golden Knights may make to take another swing at a Stanley Cup on Daily Faceoff Live.
Tyler Yaremchuk: If Lehner stays on LTIR, we’re talking about maybe $8.4 million. That could be enough to bring back both Barbashev and Hill. There’s a chance the Golden Knights run back the same roster!
Frank Seravalli: Yeah, I think they’re probably going to make some changes. I would be surprised if they don’t try and find a suitor for someone like Alec Martinez, as clutch as he was in the playoffs for them. I think he really slowed down at age 35 now, with $5.25 million left. He spoke after the game how trying the last year was with the concussion-like symptoms that he has.
There’s some other guys. Barbashev, I have a hard time believing they’re going to be able to find a way to afford him, and then you mention Hill and the goaltending. He’s not going to get a Jordan Binnington like payday, but I think the Golden Knights are going to be in pretty fine position when it comes to the goaltending space that they’re going to have definitely at least one more crack at it with this core to try and go out and chase a repeat title.
You can watch the full episode here…
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