With each passing day forward Jack Eichel gets closer to returning to the NHL with his new team the Vegas Golden Knights. While Vegas fans can’t wait, their front office might be worried about the cap maneuvering that will have to take place to get Eichel and his $10,000,000 cap hit on the ice. Eichel is almost certain to return before the playoffs and sooner than later. That means Vegas can’t put their cap worries on hold the way the Tampa Bay Lightning did with Nikita Kucherov last season. Keep in mind, the salary cap doesn’t apply in the playoffs.
Dan Rosen addressed the issue in his weekly mail bag with NHL.com. He singled out two specific players who might be on the trade block to make room for Eichel, and also Alec Martinez who might make a return soon. Are any of these players’ good targets for the New Jersey Devils? How do they compare with other players on the trade market? What about their contracts?
Whose “Leaving Las Vegas?”
Hope you all liked my Nicholas Cage movie pun. The two players Rosen specifically mentioned were Reilly Smith and Evgenii Dadonov. Reilly Smith was an original Vegas Player from their inaugural “golden misfit” season that saw them go to the Stanley Cup final. He has a lot of experience with winning. In three almost full seasons in Vegas (leaving out last year’s shortened season, but keeping 2019-2020 because he played 71 games) he never scored less than 50 points. This year, he has 33 points in 40 games.
Dadonov is a first-year Vegas player since his trade last summer from the Florida Panthers. The third-liner is having a respectable season with 21-points in 44 games. Unfortunately, he doesn’t seem to be reaching the career-highs he had with Florida during the 2018-2019 season when he had 70 points in 82 games. This season he’s averaging 16:06 ice time per game on Vegas’s third line.
Contracts and Cap Stuff
Both Dadonov and Smith have a $5,000,000 cap hit for this season. Smith will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of this season, while Dadonov has one more year left on his deal. Smith holds a slight edge in age being 30-years old compared to Dadonov being 32.
They’re Not The Only Ones
Smith is Vegas’s second line center and Dadonov is their third line center. In the past week Connor Garland of the Vancouver Canucks and Owen Tippett of the Florida Panthers have also been rumored to be available via trade. We even took an in-depth look at what Garland could bring to the New Jersey Devils earlier this week. Both Tippet and Garland slot into their respective lineups as the second-line right wing. There’s no shortage of middle-six wingers hitting the trade market now.
What Eliminates Them?
The Devils aren’t contending this season, so trading for a pending unrestricted free agent in Smith is completely out of the question. Dadonov is on the wrong side of 30 for this still very young Devils’ team. Even if he’s a great middle-six winger, it’s hard to see him as a building block going forward at his age. The other options on the trade market, Garland and Tipett, are still under contract or team contract for considerably longer periods of time. They also fit in better with age, with Garland being 25 and Tippet being 22.
The Devils can absorb either of the Golden Knights’ players $5,000,000 cap hit. At the exact moment, the Devils actually have enough to take on both their contracts, but that will change when the likes of Dougie Hamilton, Mackenzie Blackwood, and Michael McLeod come back. If Vegas is truly desperate for cap space, they might trade with the Devils as a matter of last resort, and expect the Devils to get a “sweetener” to take on the contract. Don’t expect a first-round pick like the Carolina Hurricanes got to trade and buyout Patrick Marleau from the Toronto Maple Leafs. Also, expect more than the fifth-round pick the Devils gave to the Buffalo Sabres to take Will Butcher.
In the first four rounds of this year’s upcoming draft, Vegas only has picks in the second-round and third-round (from the Ryan Reaves trade to the New York Rangers). The Devils also won’t want to give up much, or anything, to take on a player contract that won’t help them compete in the future when they weren’t competing now in the first place. Point is, the only way this trade is made is if Vegas makes it worth the Devils’ while, and Vegas is truly desperate without another trade partner.