Vegas Golden Knights: It is time to say goodbye to another Golden Misfit

It could be time to bid a fond farewell to another original member of ‘The Golden Misfits’ with the Vegas Golden Knights short in cap space.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the salary cap for the 2020-21 NHL season is likely to be frozen at $81.5 million which is bad news for the Vegas Golden Knights and other teams with cap constraints.

It could even dip below $81.5 million in the worst-case scenario, with the NHL and the entire sporting world taking a gigantic hit because of this current pandemic.

As a result, the Golden Knights will have to do a fine balancing act when it comes to their salary cap for 2020-21, and that could mean saying goodbye to depth forward Tomas Nosek.

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Selected from the Detroit Red Wings in the 2017 NHL Expansion Draft, Nosek has morphed into a critical role player for the Golden Knights.

In 202 regular-season games for Vegas, Nosek has contributed 23 goals, 24 assists, 47 points, 52 PIM, 85 blocked shots, 219 hits and 90 Takeaways.

Furthermore, the 27-year-old was a presence for the Knights in the postseason, racking up 44 hits and an average of 12:27 minutes of total ice time in 24 Playoff appearances.

Nosek was also 50.1% in the faceoff circle in 2019-20 prior to the lockdown, while he owns a faceoff win percentage of 53.0% in his three seasons with the Golden Knights.

Part of the fabled legion of doom fourth-line alongside William Carrier and Ryan Reaves, Nosek is a staple of the bottom-six and he’s also a key figure on the penalty kill for Vegas.

However, Nosek is a pending UFA this off-season and his days in Sin City may well be numbered given the current climate.

Should the salary cap remain frozen at $81.5 million for the 2020-21 season, the Golden Knights will have around $7 million in cap space to re-sign seven free agents and fill out the rest of the roster.

Ryan Reaves and Robin Lehner are the high-profile UFA’s while Chandler Stephenson and Nick Cousins headlines the RFA’s group.

Lehner is likely to hit the open market with the elite goalie out of Vegas’ price-range, while Deryk Engelland could retire and defenseman Jon Merrill will probably be allowed to walk.

That leaves Reaves, who is on the cusp of re-signing according to reports, Stephenson, Cousins and Nosek to try and re-sign.

Reaves is not only a human wrecking ball but he’s really found his offensive game in Sin City with 20 points (nine goals, 11 assists) in 2018-19 and 15 points (eight goals, seven assists) this season prior to the NHL going on lockdown, while Stephenson really blossomed into an offensive juggernaut for the Golden Knights following his early season trade from the Washington Capitals.

Even Cousins, who was acquired at the Trade Deadline from the Montreal Canadiens, slotted in nicely and could be a useful role player at the right price.

Plus, following the emergence of Nicolas Roy as a key cog in the bottom-six, Nosek has become somewhat expendable.

When you also consider that Jack Dugan and maybe even Peyton Krebs will be battling for roster spots out of Training Camp, there has to be an odd man out and that man figures to be Nosek.

While only carrying a cap hit of $1,000,000 in 2019-20, Nosek just doesn’t seem to fit in the Golden Knights’ plans for the 2020-21 season.

Cousins could be signed to the same cap hit as Nosek, or maybe a little less, and the forward brings more to the table offensively, while Stephenson has proven what he can do when given a bigger role so he should be re-signed without a doubt.

With Roy, Stephenson, Cousins and maybe Dugan all able to slot in on the fourth-line, it makes no sense to re-sign Nosek given the cap constraints the Knights will face in 2020-21.

For instance, they will likely need to sign a veteran backup goalie if Lehner does leave, and the money saved by not re-signing Nosek could go towards finding a No. 2 netminder.

It would of course be sad to see a crucial role player in Nosek depart, especially considering his body of work for this franchise from day one.

However, sports is a cut-throat business and the Golden Knights can’t afford to rest on their laurels or be sentimental in a hard cap business.

As a result, the right and sensible decision should be to cut ties with Tomas Nosek this coming off-season and allow the forward to earn his payday elsewhere.