Could the Vegas Golden Knights Target Evander Kane?

How Will the Vegas Golden Knights Get Cap Compliant?

More than likely, when Eichel returns to the lineup, they will be looking to move one of their forwards. No reason to move a defenseman when you’re replacing a forward. So, its possible that they could look to move a center or two, but I’d say It’s more likely they move a winger. However, with how badly tied up the Knights are in cap, they could look to trade a defenseman as well.

So with that being said, their are a lot of potential choices. In that list of potential names from the forward category is Evgenii Dadonov, Reilly Smith, Mattias Janmark, and a dark horse name- Jonathan Marchessault.

If you were to take a look at the defenseman to determine if any of them could be traded, there is one name that comes to mind- Alec Martinez.

Lately, there has been a lot of talk revolving around Evgenii Dadonov. Personally, I feel like he’ll stick around unless they move more than one player- Which is a real possibility. In this case, we are going to run that scenario. So, who will be moved?

Who Will Get Moved for the Vegas Golden Knights?

I stated earlier in this article that I was going to go with the more probable choices and I feel that is both Reilly Smith, Evgenii Dadonov, and Alec Martinez.

Smith and Dadonov are both talented wingers and it hurts to see them go, but they are in a stacked position for the Vegas Golden Knights. It’s hard to think that they’d keep both of them when they aren’t quite performing to their pay. Not to mention, it helps give the young guys a real chance to grow into NHL caliber players.

Seeing the misfit line breakup is hard to process, but their time in Vegas is going to come to an end rather it’s Smith or Marchessault. The Vegas Golden Knights simply just don’t have the money to keep both of them on the roster. So, between the two, I’m trading away Reilly Smith for sure.

As for my reasoning behind trading Alec Martinez, we’ll that’s coming up on this next part.

Now, that we have the names I will be trading away in this article- let me break down the financial situation of the Vegas Golden Knights.

The Vegas Golden Knights Financial Situation

Looking at the Vegas Golden Knights cap space, it doesn’t look great. The Vegas Golden Knights currently have only $2,510,833 available. Which, obviously is without Alec Martinez and Jack Eichel’s contracts on the book. So with that being said, you’re probably curious as to what they make. We’ll let me tell you.

Jack Eichel is currently set to make $10,000,000 AAV over the next five years excluding this one. Alec Martinez is currently making $5,250,000 AAV for the next two years excluding this one. So, when they both get activated off the Vegas Golden Knights long-term injury reserve, the Knights will need to clear $12,739,167 in order to be cap compliant.

Looking at the contracts of Reilly Smith and Evgenii Dadonov, they are actually very similar. Smith is set to make $5,000,000 and same goes for Dadonov. Which, as you can probably realize, it’s only $10,000,000. So that means that even with those two names being traded away, they will still need to clear another $2,739,167. That’s where trading Alec Martinez comes into play.

Trading Alec Martinez is definitely not my preferred choice, but the truth of the matter is that he is obviously replaceable. I mean, just look at this season for example.

This season Martinez has played in a total of 11 games. Yet, the Vegas Golden Knights are still finding ways to win. The reason? It’s because the depth they have defensively. With guys like Nicolas Hague, Ben Hutton, Daniil Miromanov, Dylan Coghlan, and Zach Whitecloud stepping up, it’s allowed most people to realize that Martinez isn’t as important as people think.

Not to mention- if you trade Martinez away, you’re clearing more than enough cap for the next couple years to give yourself enough room to go make some other moves in free agency. In fact, there’s a move you can make right now to help your team.