Golden Knights Mailbag: Marner, Marchessault; New Smith Deal?

After a second-round exit from the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Vegas Golden Knights begin an offseason of critical decisions. As currently constructed, they weren’t good enough to achieve the ultimate goal of competing for or winning the Stanley Cup. 

That means it’s time for a little roster surgery. And Golden Knights general manager Kelly McCrimmon has never shied away from picking up the scalpel– ah, phone.

Between trades, Free Agency, and the NHL Entry Draft, it’s going to be a busy few months. So, to kick off the party, we had some fun with a Mailbag– you asked, we answered. 

Once again, I’d like to extend my sincere gratitude to all who participated. I really enjoy doing these. I love hearing from all of you. It’s going to be a long offseason– let’s do this again soon.

Without further ado, let’s dive right in!

“If Mitch Marner is coming, who do we trade to make room, and how will that affect Eichel’s new contract?” –E Magnuson

So, yes, Eichel needing a new contract does complicate the Marner situation— but not as much as you might think. Let’s break this down. 

First, there’s the matter of how much Marner would want. I can’t see the Golden Knights giving him more than, say, $13 million— although I’m sure they’d love to get him at $12.5 million. And as of June 4th, the Golden Knights have $9.615 million to spend, which is less than $12.5-13 million. 

So, they’d have to ship one or multiple players out to shed salary. I wrote a piece highlighting the three most likely trade candidates, but honestly? I’m confident that Jack Eichel won’t be moved. Alex Pietrangelo and Mark Stone have full No Movement Clauses, so they’re probably safe. But with how committed the Golden Knights are to winning, it’s hard to rule anyone out. 

Now, the easiest player to move is probably Ivan Barbashev, who is garnering interest around the league. He’s making $5 million and is fresh off a 23-goal, 51-point season. That means he has value; if he’s traded, it won’t just be a cap dump. I’m not sure what a return might look like— if the Golden Knights don’t want to take on any salary, things get complicated. 

With the salary cap going up, Eichel will be a wealthy man when he puts pen to paper. How wealthy? My gut says he’ll want to make somewhere in the $13 million range, but I could be wrong. However, making the money work is a nonissue. Even if the Golden Knights sign Marner, with the salary cap going up, they can afford to pay Eichel. 

“Instead of going after Mitch Marner, would you prefer to go after multiple proven contributors like Matt Duchene, Ryan Donato, and Reilly Smith for right around the same amount of money it would cost to obtain Marner? Obviously, this is based on Duchene and Donato being available on July 1 and not re-signing with their teams before then. But would you prefer McCrimmon taking the path of going after multiple solid depth players over one star player?” –George

I love this question. 

However, depth was supposed to be the Golden Knights “thing” this year. They were the fifth-highest-scoring team in the league. There were 11 players with at least 30 points; eight players had 15 or more goals. But when push came to shove, that depth evaporated. The Golden Knights’ season ended unceremoniously with 127 scoreless minutes against Stuart Skinner. 

If I had the keys to the kingdom, my priority would be signing Marner– that is if he’ll agree to $13 million or less. 

But I do think there’s a lot of merit to this question. So, for the sake of the argument, let’s say Marner signs elsewhere for more money. Next on the totem pole should be Brock Boeser. Boeser is a proven goalscorer, and with a playmaker like Jack Eichel, he could hit the 40-goal mark again. In turn, Eichel needs someone who can keep up with him.

I would avoid Matt Duchene for two reasons. One, I think the Golden Knights are strong down the middle as they are – they need to allocate most of their available salary cap to wingers. And two, while I like Duchene, he’s another player on the wrong side of 30.

A guy like Ryan Donato, who is coming off a career year, will want a nice payday. I love his game in the bottom six, but he’s barely sniffed 20 goals before, and he’s unlikely to score 30 again. With the salary cap going up, players like Donato are going to make out like bandits in Free Agency– and the Golden Knights really need to avoid bad contracts.

In the coming days, I’ll profile some bargain-bin Free Agent targets. I have a few in mind, but I need a more complete list.

Now, as for Reilly Smith…

“Will the Golden Knights re-sign Reilly Smith?” –Lewis

I truly don’t know.

I have to think so. Smith loves Vegas. He wants to stay, and he wants to skate in his 1,000th game as a member of the Golden Knights. He said so verbatim last month. If I had to bet on any player in the entire league to take a team-friendly deal, I’d go all-in on Reilly Smith.

Personally, I think that the Golden Knights would be rather foolish to let Smith walk. He’s fast, he can score, and he bleeds Vegas gold. Unless he’s asking for a ridiculous amount of money, they really should give Smith a new deal.

That being said, Kelly McCrimmon traded Smith away just two years ago. So, there’s really no way of knowing what will happen in the coming weeks.

“Should Vegas try to ‘get the band back together’ and bring back Jonathan Marchessault?” –Jakob

Should they? There are two ways to look at this. 

Oh, the Golden Knights miss his fire. They miss his speed, and they really miss his goalscoring. The Golden Knights haven’t found a suitable replacement for Marchessault since letting him walk in Free Agency last offseason, and it shows. 

In the postseason, the top two goalscorers on the team– Pavel Dorofeyev and Tomáš Hertl– went ice cold. Sure, Marchessault had his streaky moments in the playoffs. But this is the guy who scored a hat trick in his last elimination game against the Edmonton Oilers. 

That being said, there are also a few reasons why the Golden Knights shouldn’t get the band back together. Or, rather, ‘can’t’ is probably the more accurate word.

For one, there’s the issue of Marchessault’s contract. The reason the Golden Knights didn’t extend him last summer was that they couldn’t agree on term. Presumably, the Nashville Predators gave Marchessault the term he wanted. Without salary retention, he’ll be 38 years old and making $5.5 million.

Here’s the other issue: when the Golden Knights let Marchessault go, it probably didn’t end well. 

Marchessault was an Original Misfit. He won the Conn Smythe in 2023, and he’s still the franchise leader in both goals and points. Had Marchessault finished his career as a Golden Knight, he probably would’ve had his jersey retired. For him to walk in Free Agency feels like a burnt bridge that no one can rebuild.

He’s reportedly open to a trade from Nashville, but I can’t realistically see a return to Vegas.

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