We are as close to official without an announcement to hearing that the NHL will return this season; with January 13th being the current set date.
Until then we will continue discussing a variety of other topics. Today's discussion will centre around the reports that the Vegas Golden Knights are looking to move Max Pacioretty.
Since the 2014/2015 season, the 32 year old 6'2 winger sits 7th in the league in 5 on 5 points (122) and sits fourth in goals (61). Injuries hurt Max in the 17/18 and 18/19 seasons but last season his 32 goals on a 10.4SH% showed he can still be an elite scorer.
As skilled a forward as Pacioretty is, his contract is enough to make most teams balk. Three years remain on the deal with an annual cap hit of 7 million. A flat cap and questions on how much money organizations will be able to make over the next few years make a deal like that highly difficult to trade.
Should the Edmonton Oilers be interested in Pacioretty? Of course they should. Any time a good player is available any GM worth their salt should be enquiring. Whether a trade makes sense is a whole other story.
As of today, the Edmonton Oilers are right at the cap ceiling and technically are about $200,000 over the cap. Right shot defenceman Ethan Bear still needs to be signed.
The one play that remains for Holland is to move Oscar Klefbom to the LTIR. The defenceman is fully expected to miss the entire 20/21 season and will eventually undergo shoulder surgery.
Other reports have suggested Edmonton will sign Ethan Bear to a one year deal in the one million dollar range before looking to lock him up longer term after this season.
Doing some quick math; Edmonton should roll into training camp with just under 3 million dollars in cap space... still not nearly enough to sign Pacioretty.
Here are a few scenarios to look at:
1.) Vegas Retains Salary Very few teams can take on an additional seven million dollars right now, limiting the number of suitors for Pacioretty. Edmonton could look to trade assets such as Puljujarvi, or a 1st or 2nd round pick next season, or other prospects to have Vegas retain 50% of his salary.
For those who will say Pacioretty shouldn't be worth a 1st or 2nd if the Canucks gave up only a 3rd for Nate Schmidt remember that no salary was retained in that deal.
Option 2.) Neal+ for Pacioretty
This may sound ridiculous but hear me out for a moment. If the Golden Knights are in such a predicament with Pacioretty that they are considering a buyout, here is how that would roll out:
20/21: $1,944,444 21/22: $3,694,444 22/23: $3,694,444 23/24: $1,944,444 24/25: $1,944,444 25/26: $1,944,444
Let's say Edmonton deals Puljujarvi and Neal to the Golden Knights and Vegas buys Neal out immediately. Here is how that would break down:
20/21: $1,916,667 21/22: $1,916,667 22/23: $1,916,667 23/24: $1,916,667 24/25: $1,916,667 25/26: $1,916,667
Same number of years but several million dollars saved by the Vegas organization. The odds of this one happening I would say are roughly 2-3%.
Option 3.) Involve Another Team
Edmonton deals Kassian and Chiasson to Team X for assets which they deal along with other assets themselves to acquire Pacioretty.
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Writing this little experiment there is one thing that is clear and that is that a Pacioretty deal to the Edmonton Oilers would be nearly impossible. While Pacioretty is still a great player, I would not trade many of the Oilers current assets to find a spot for him on this team.
With RNH, Kahun, and Ennis on the left side in the top nine, Tippett already has a good amount of skill to work with. Whatever cap space is left at the beginning of training camp should be used to sign a PTO option, likely on defense.
Thanks for reading.