Vegas Golden Knights get Garret Sparks in strange trade with Toronto

The Vegas Golden Knights and the Toronto Maple Leafs combined on Tuesday to make the hockey universe on Twitter lose their collective minds after executing a bizarre trade.

Moments after announcing that locker room leader Deryk Engelland had re-signed with the team, the Vegas Golden Knights also made it official that they had sent David Clarkson and a fourth-round pick in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft to the Leafs for goaltender Garret Sparks.

It was a trade that came completely out of the blue and shocked the hockey world, leading to a plethora of questions. Do the Leafs have enough cap space to take on Clarkson’s hefty contract? Just how good is Garret Sparks? What does this trade mean for the Golden Knights and Nikita Gusev? How the hell did this trade even happen?!

There are multiple aspects and facets to this trade and we’ll try and break it down as best as we can. One thing we know for certain though and that’s the fact that nobody, and we mean nobody in the hockey world, was expecting this deal to go down and it proved to be a hot talking point, even though no major stars were involved.

Before we get on to what the Golden Knights acquired, we’ll start by assessing the most complicated factor of this trade and that is the David Clarkson factor. The veteran’s $5,250,000 annual cap hit was an albatross around Vegas’ neck, especially given the fact that the 35-year-old hasn’t laced up his skates since 2015-16 due to a career-ending spine injury.

Now, an important caveat to consider here is when we spoke to Jesse Granger of The Athletic last week, he spoke about a conversation he had with Golden Knights President of Hockey Operations George McPhee, who revealed that they were not looking to move Clarkson’s contract and were instead considering placing it on the long-term injured reserve list.

However, whether that was a smokescreen or the truth at the time remains to be seen, but McPhee once again proved his savviness after shedding Clarkson’s deal by trading him back to Toronto, where he signed his current seven-year, $36.75 million contract back in 2013. But, why was this done and what implications does it have for both teams?

Let’s deal with the Golden Knights’ aspect first as, let’s face it, that is the reason why you are all here in the first place. It is another shrewd move by the Vegas front office who rid themselves of Clarkson’s contract and, in doing so, avoid having to deal with the LTIR (Long-Term Injured Reserve List) which means Deryk Engelland‘s bonuses from his new contract won’t carry over to 2020-21, which would have been the case if Vegas kept Clarkson and placed his contract on the LTIR during the season.

Also, you can’t benefit from additional cap space while the season progresses if you are in LTIR, so the Knights have avoided that possibility which should make next summer a little bit easier to navigate in terms of the salary cap. All in all, the Golden Knights have rid themselves of a significant headache and are now $1,025,001 under the $81.5 million cap hit for 2019-20.

That will give them the freedom to pull the trigger on another trade, be it Cody Eakin, Ryan Reaves or Nick Holden, in order to meet Nikita Gusev’s demands (he reportedly wants $8 million over two years) and complete what has been a successful offseason by bringing the Russian stud back to Sin City.

For Toronto, this deal was also intriguing given the fact that it also gives their offseason plans a considerable boost. It is no secret that they still need to thrash out a new deal with star Mitch Marner, but they too have been hindered by cap complications. By bringing Clarkson back to Canada, and this is where it gets complicated, the Maple Leafs can actually create cap space.

We probably spent hours shifting through all the information out there just to make sure we got this right because, as we’ve already stated, this was a layered trade with a plethora of intricate complexities. Toronto can place Clarkson, along with Nathan Horton and his $5.3 million cap hit, on the LTIR when they reach the $81.5 million salary cap ceiling, which means they will be given $10.525 million in cap relief as a result.

Again, there are a million different strings to this particular bow with each one carrying its own sizeable complication. For example, the Leafs have already exceeded the salary cap with a current cap hit of $82,234,699, although a lot of roster pieces still need to be shifted around. Basically, by taking on Clarkson’s contract they given themselves some much-needed flexibility.

CapFriendly probably explain it best. Simply put, the Maple Leafs can build a roster with a projected total cap hit as high as $92,050,000 and then place both Horton and Clarkson on the LTIR to cover the $10.55 million difference. Alternatively, they could make a slew of roster moves to get down to the $81.5 million cap hit for 2019-20 and then place Clarkson and Horton on the LTIR once the season starts, which would then give them an additional $10.55 million in cap space. However, that latter scenario will only happen if Marner doesn’t re-sign before the season begins.

Or, finally, they could construct a roster that has a projected cap hit of $89,913,333 and then place Horton, Zach Hyman and Travis Dermott on the LTIR on Oct, 1 to cover the difference, before placing Clarkson on the LTIR on Oct, 2, which would given them an additional $5.2 million in cap space. They can basically exceed the cap hit of $81.5 million by $10 million in the offseason but needs to be back under it by the start of the season. By putting players on the LTIR, it won’t totally eradicate their cap hits but they won’t count against the cap, therefore giving Toronto the freedom to thrash out a new deal with Marner. We told you it was complicated!

Now, Vegas did have to cough up a fourth-round selection in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft in order to sweeten the deal for the Leafs but, all things considered, it is a small price to pay when you consider the freedom this trade now gives the Golden Knights in terms of cap space and putting them a step closer to being able to sign Gusev to a new deal.

Not only that but the Knights also bolstered their goaltending options on the depth chart after acquiring Garret Sparks as part of yesterday’s trade. Sparks has one full season in the NHL under his belt while he was a big cog in the Toronto Marlies machine that won the Calder Cup in 2018.

Sparks, a 190th overall pick by the Leafs in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft, made his NHL debut in 2015-16 and has appeared in 37 games for Toronto, posting a 14-18-2 record and a 3.09 goals against average to go along with a 0.898 save percentage.

Beginning 2018-19 in the AHL with the Marlies, the 26-year-old went on a historic tear and won the Aldege “Baz” Bastien Memorial Award as the AHL’s outstanding goaltender after posting a 1.79 GAA and a .936 save percentage. He topped off a spectacular year by backstopping Toronto to glory in the Calder Cup Finals, going 14-5 with a 2.22 goals against average and a 0.915 save percentage.

Sparks’ exploits with the Marlies earned him the backup job behind Freddie Andersen for the Leafs last year, but it turned out to be a tough year both mentally and physically for the 6’2″, 201 lb goalie. He posted a 8-9-1 record in 17 starts for the Maple Leafs in 2018-19, posting a 3.15 GAA and a 0.902 save percentage. He was removed by the team prior to the playoffs in order to regain his composure, coming just a month after being given a one-year, $750,000 extension.

Granted, the above probably doesn’t make good reading for Vegas fans but Sparks has shown promise and he should be reaching the prime of his career right now. He’s obviously got the talent and it is fair to say that he hasn’t yet reached his peak.

He will more than likely begin 2019-20 in the AHL with the Chicago Wolves, but he’ll get a chance to show why he should be considered a challenger to Malcolm Subban‘s role as backup to Marc-Andre Fleury in training camp. Sparks represents a solid option should injuries arise next year and he’s an interesting project for Golden Knights Goaltending Coach, David Prior to work with, given his age and body of work in the AHL.

All in all, it was a multi-layered trade for both teams and it wasn’t an easy one to dissect or explain, particularly the David Clarkson portion of the deal. But, to put it in simple terms, the Vegas Golden Knights created some much-needed cap space while adding a goaltender with some promise to the depth chart.

We are now going to go and sit in a dark room and give our brains a good rest following the mammoth undertaking of writing this piece, and we strongly suggest you do the same once you have finished reading it!