Golden Knights Expected To Make Trade Soon: What They Need

The Vegas Golden Knights are currently in a rut. They are 2-8-2 in their last twelve games and have been lost without captain Mark Stone, who has missed the last eight games with an upper-body injury. They are now 16-16-4 since their historic red-hot start, which saw a nine-game winning streak.

With his team struggling, Golden Knights general manager Kelly McCrimmon could look to the NHL Trade Market to give his team a boost. The 2023 NHL Trade Deadline is slated for March 3rd and the VGK are currently off until Feb. 7th due to NHL All-Star Weekend.

On the latest edition of the 32 Thoughts Podcast, Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman stated that he thinks it is only a matter of time before the VGK made a trade.

"Vegas, they are really struggling and I think they are going to do something. The question is just when," said Friedman.

The two names Friedman has linked to the VGK so far are St. Louis Blues players Ivan Barbashev and Noel Acciari, based on their connections with both head coach Bruce Cassidy and, to take it a step further, alternate captain Alex Pietrangelo.

"Someone said to me, depending on particularly what Vegas' injury situation is, they could see Vegas liking (Noel) Acciari and (Ivan) Barbashev… Accairi was in Boston with Cassidy and Cassidy saw Barbashev play very well in the 2019 Stanley Cup Finals," said Friedman.

With the scent of a Golden Knights trade in the air, what are the VGK after on the NHL Trade Board? 

Golden Knights Needs

Overall, the main area of need for the VGK at this year's trade deadline is for depth forwards, specifically wingers. Outside of bringing in Phil Kessel and lucking out with the development of Paul Cotter, the team has not addressed losing Max Pacioretty, Evgenii Dadonov, and Mattias Janmark in the offseason.

Depth scoring and putting together a consistent third line has been a major issue, and now with the top players struggling, perhaps the top six needs a shakeup as well. Adding a couple of utility depth forwards would greatly improve the Golden Knights as a more structured team.

For the Golden Knights. their trade deadline plans will all depend on the health of Mark Stone, who carries a $9.5 million cap hit. Stone's status is still in limbo and the team is obviously hoping he can come back even though having $9.5 million in LTIR cap space would be beneficial. If Stone is able to make a return, the Golden Knights would subsequently not go after players with big contracts. 

Active Trade Board

Now, let's go shopping and browse the active trade bait board to see which players match the aforementioned needs of the VGK. 

With Zach Whitecloud returning soon and the Golden Knight's defense strong from an organizational standpoint, it is unlikely that the VGK will be after any big-name defensemen at the deadline. So Erik Karlsson, Jacob Chychrun, and Shayne Ghostisbehere needn't be discussed.

In goal, while the tandem is not the most established in the league, it looks like the duo of Logan Thompson and Adin Hill will stick. So James Reimer and Anton Khudobin can be removed as VGK options.

That leaves us to forwards and based on their price tags both as players and to trade for it is unlikely the VGK will go after big names like Timo Meier, Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, Ryan O'Reilly, and Vladamir Tarasenko if Stone is able to return this season.

That leaves depth forwards Buchnevich, Acciari, Jesse Puljujarvi, and Max Domi as possible additions to the Golden Knights.

Golden Knights Trade Chips

In terms of what the VGK have to give up, they have all of their first-round picks currently and are only missing three of their own picks (2023 second, 2023 fourth, and 2024 fourth). Prospects such as Brendan Brisson, Zach Dean, and Lukas Cormier could be in play as always. Laurent Brossoit is in play too.

With Zach Whitecloud still on LTIR along with the other out-for-the-season players, the VGK have roughly $3.8 million in available cap space.

I sense that the Golden Knights are in a position where they want to make the playoffs desperately this season after missing them for the first time in franchise history. This could lead the organization in a direction of trading more futures for rental players in an effort to re-establish themselves as a playoff team.

The Golden Knights currently have far more problems than one or two trade acquisitions could handle. But they could nudge the team in the right direction.

Now would be a fitting time for the Golden Knights to make a trade as they are off this week for their bye week and for the NHL All-Star Weekend. That event, which will feature head coach Bruce Cassidy, Logan Thompson, and now Chandler Stephenson will begin on Feb. 3rd at 4:00 p.m.