Man, it seems like the Vegas Golden Knights are literally in on everyone. Kelly McCrimmon is always in on every hockey superstar, whether it's the Fun Must Be Always ambassador, Tomas Hertl, or the former Calgary Flame, Rasmus Andersson. It's good to be the king, huh?
So, who's another superstar linked to the Golden Knights going to hurt? That's what Elliotte Friedman implied in the latest 32 Thoughts episode. As is rumor tradition, he linked New York Rangers megastar Artemi Panarin to the Golden Knights.
"Vegas, I always put them in, but I don't know how on Earth they could do an extension."Elliotte Friedman on 32 Thoughts
Yep, you knew that was coming. I mean, when you're linked to a player with 19 goals and 57 points, the world's literally your oyster. The Russian winger comes with a cap hit of $11,642,857 and was taken out of the Rangers' lineup for "asset management" reasons this week. Imagine the face of the 31 other teams if Vegas got him, too.
While it sounds good for Las Vegas to rub it in the faces of its adversaries, it's not necessarily easy to pull off from a Golden Knights perspective. A couple of factors might be the proverbial rain on the parade.
Pulling off an Artemi Panarin deal would be Kelly McCrimmon's biggest challenge yet
While it's nice that the Golden Knights are linked to yet another superstar, there are a couple of catches.
First comes the Golden Knights' salary cap situation for this season—and the next. This season's current cap space consists of $3,878,376. In 2026-27? That would be $5.14 million.
That also leads to the next problem: Panarian wants a contract extension. That makes life much harder for the Golden Knights (and the Rangers!), considering their salary cap situation. That's not even considering that you need to extend either Pavel Dorofeyev, Rasmus Andersson, or both.
With that, the roster would need a massive overhaul. We're talking about sending off players like Ivan Barbashev, Brett Howden, and Keegan Kolesar. Even those moves would make life difficult for McCrimmon from a depth standpoint. Not only do you lose a ton of depth scoring, but the forecheck becomes much more suspect on the lower units. Is that something that the general manager wants to sacrifice to build the ultimate team?
McCrimmon should look at a division rival and see what he shouldn't do
For years, the Edmonton Oilers have relied on a top-heavy lineup to get them to two Stanley Cup Finals. They've turned to the two big stars in Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl to carry them. While they've done tremendous damage during the regular season, they've fallen short during the McDavid era.
The cause? Bad goaltending and nearly non-existent depth scoring. When you carry a top-heavy lineup into every Stanley Cup playoff, teams with scoring on almost ever line can exploit you. Add some defense and/or solid goaltending and that becomes a problem.
That's the situation that McCrimmon could face if he goes after Panarin. Oh sure, he provides plenty of scoring. But is it worth mortgaging the future when you already gave up a hefty load for Andersson? That's why a deal isn't as likely to happen as Golden Knights fans would love to believe. Still, it'd be a ton of fun to think about.