Vegas Golden Knights: Four players who may have played their last game

4. Chandler Stephenson, F, RFA

Not only do the Golden Knights have five UFA’s to worry about this off-season, they also have the trickier task of dealing with three Restricted Free Agents.

Chandler Stephenson, Nicolas Roy and Nick Cousins are all pending RFA’s and all three have proven themselves this year.

Cousins, who was acquired at the Trade Deadline from the Montreal Canadiens, is a versatile depth player that can provide an offensive punch, while Roy has really flourished for the Knights in his rookie year.

And then there is Stephenson who has been used up and down the lineup for the Golden Knights since being acquired in a trade from the Washington Capitals on Dec. 3, for a fifth-round pick in the 2021 NHL Entry Draft.

Able to play as a center or as a wing, Stephenson is a Swiss-Army Knife type player and he made an instant impact for Vegas, recording eight goals and 14 assists for 22 points in 41 games while logging time on both the penalty kill and on the power play.

Depth is essential to winning championships in all major sports and given what Stephenson can offer, it is likely the Golden Knights would want to thrash out a new deal with the 25-year-old.

However, given that he is an RFA, negotiations can get tricky and Stephenson would likely demand a significant rise on his current $1,050,000 cap hit should it go to Arbitration.

Furthermore, there is a chance that a team could offer sheet Stephenson, further raising the price the Golden Knights would have to meet if they wanted to keep the forward.

In all likelihood, the Golden Knights will do what they need to in order to re-sign Stephenson by tendering a qualifying offer by June, 25, given his impact in such a short amount of time, but every player has a price and Vegas can’t afford to feed the few over the many this off-season.