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Vegas Golden Knights: Breaking down 2020 Salary Cap Possibilities

By Andrew Steele-Davis |
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA - JUNE 22: President George McPhee (L) of the Vegas Golden Knights and executive Brian Burke talk on the draft floor during Rounds 2-7 of the 2019 NHL Draft at Rogers Arena on June 22, 2019 in Vancouver, Canada. (Photo by Jeff Vinnick/NHLI via Getty Images)
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA - JUNE 22: President George McPhee (L) of the Vegas Golden Knights and executive Brian Burke talk on the draft floor during Rounds 2-7 of the 2019 NHL Draft at Rogers Arena on June 22, 2019 in Vancouver, Canada. (Photo by Jeff Vinnick/NHLI via Getty Images)

We haven’t even seen a puck slapped towards goal in competitive anger in 2019-20 yet, but we are already going to look ahead and see what next summer holds in store for the Vegas Golden Knights.

What are we talking about? Good question. Basically, we are going to attempt to break down the salary cap for 2020-21 and dissect what that will exactly mean for the Vegas Golden Knights.

First, let’s start with some good news. The salary cap should increase in 2020 and it could be significantly more than the $81.5 million ceiling this year. Now there’s more good news because, as it stands, the Golden Knights are projected to have $15,925,000 in cap space next year.

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That opens up a lot of doors and it will be a far cry from this off-season where the Knights were right up against the cap and had to pull the trigger on a slew of trades, sending Nikita Gusev to the New Jersey Devils, Colin Miller to the Buffalo Sabres and Erik Haula to the Carolina Hurricanes in order to be compliant with the cap.

Now, we are currently working on a piece detailing three elite defensemen the Golden Knights could target in free agency next summer given that they could do with upgrading their blueline, and we’ll assess the free agency class of 2020 shortly, but first let’s study who will come off the books for Vegas next summer.

The Golden Knights will have a total of ten players that will become either restricted or unrestricted free agents next off-season, not including the likes of Nicholas Roy, Oscar Dansk and Garret Sparks who don’t count against the cap at the moment.

Here is the list in full:

That list doesn’t include Jimmy Schuldt, who has yet to re-sign for 2019-20 but given that it is expected to be a short-term deal, he could also be in line for another contract next summer.

It is likely that the likes of Eakin, Reaves, Nosek, McKenzie and Holden will all be allowed to depart for pastures new next summer, while Zykov could also depart if he doesn’t carve out a productive year in Sin City and there is a very real possibility that Engelland could retire.

Should he continue on his upward trend then Merrill should get a new deal, although Subban could look for a contract elsewhere given his desire to win a starting job in the NHL sooner rather than later. That is why I think the Knights traded for Garret Sparks so that they could have an insurance policy in place should Subban decide to leave next summer.

If all of the Knights restricted and unrestricted free agents were to depart, however, then they would be committed to spending $44,425,000 on forwards, $13,650,000 on defensemen and $7,000,000 on just the one goaltender.

It is important to note that doesn’t include Cody Glass’ cap hit of $863,333 and Nic Hague’s annual average value of $791,667, with the pair likely to be on the big league roster come 2020-21. Also, the Golden Knights will carry $500,000 of Tomas Tatar‘s retained salary into next year.

So, that would leave the Vegas Golden Knights with a projected cap hit of $65,575,000 and a projected cap space of $15,925,000, which is only bound to increase given that it is an almost certainty that the salary cap will increase next year.

Before we move on, we’ve also mapped out a full list of players who will be under contract for 2020-21:

Let’s now look at some of the top restricted and unrestricted free agents that will be available next off-season. This is significant because, as already mentioned, the Golden Knights will have $15,925,000 in cap space and that is based on this year’s cap ceiling of $81.5 million, so that will only increase.

NEWARK, NJ – DECEMBER 23: Taylor Hall #9 of the New Jersey Devils skates during pre game warmups before the game against the Columbus Blue Jackets at Prudential Center on December 23, 2018 in Newark, New Jersey. (Photo by Jared Silber/NHLI via Getty Images)
NEWARK, NJ – DECEMBER 23: Taylor Hall #9 of the New Jersey Devils skates during pre game warmups before the game against the Columbus Blue Jackets at Prudential Center on December 23, 2018 in Newark, New Jersey. (Photo by Jared Silber/NHLI via Getty Images) /

We already know the front office tandem of President of Hockey Operations George McPhee and General Manager Kelly McCrimmon aren’t scared to go out and bolster the roster significantly by acquiring a big star either via trade or by dipping their toes into the free agency pool, and that could be the case again next summer should the duo feel the team needs another elite talent in order to push them closer to a Stanley Cup.

Here’s a list of some of the best names that will be available next summer…

Of course, there are two major caveats at play here. Firstly, the majority of those players in all likelihood will get re-signed by their current teams before next summer, but some will hit the open market because that is always the case. Secondly, there is obviously no guarantee that the Knights will sign another big name, but they will have the cap space should they wish to head in that particular direction.

Next. Top 3 reasons to be excited for 2019-20. dark

They could instead opt to spread that money around in terms of plugging in little gaps throughout the roster, but given that all of their big weapons in the ilk of Mark Stone, William Karlsson and Shea Theodore are locked down to long-term deals, their Stanley Cup window is right now and they could do with adding an absolute stud on the blueline.

It goes without saying that this is just a rough breakdown of the options the Vegas Golden Knights could have in 2020 given that we don’t know what the cap ceiling will be next year. However, what we do know is that this franchise will have plenty of cash to burn going into 2020-21 and that could lead to a very exciting summer.

All cap-related info is thanks to CapFriendly. 

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