Free Agent Frenzy on July 1 continues to draw closer and TSN.ca keeps you up to date with all the latest news and rumours as the NHL off-season heats up.
Changes Coming in Vegas
TSN’s Travis Yost wrote Monday that the Vegas Golden Knights have little time to mourn their Stanley Cup Final loss with team now facing a cap crunch ahead of July 1.
Yost wrote that the Golden Knights face a difficult decision on whether to pay restricted free agent Pavel Dorofeyev, with the knowledge that doing so will likely force major changes to their roster.
Dorofeyev, who is eligible for arbitration, is coming off a two-year, $3.67 million contract. The 25-year-old winger is in for a massive pay raise after hitting the 35-goal mark for the second straight season this year and posting 12 goals and 16 points in 22 playoff games.
The Golden Knights currently have just $4.6 million in projected cap space, per PuckPedia, but will clear an additional $8.8 million in space if Alex Pietrangelo remains on LTIR. Still, extending Dorofeyev could eat up the vast majority of that $13.4 million and leave the Golden Knights with eight roster spots still to fill.
Forwards Reilly Smith, Brandon Saad, Colton Sissons and Cole Smith are all pending unrestricted free agents, along with defencemen Rasmus Andersson, Jeremy Lauzon, Dylan Coghlan and Ben Hutton.
“In a vacuum, the Golden Knights would love to extend Dorofeyev and keep him tied to the hip of a player like (Mitch) Marner,” Yost wrote. “But doing so would likely mean painful choices around the rest of the roster. The recently acquired Andersson hitting unrestricted free agency would be all but guaranteed, and that’s just the start of it.
“It’s going to be a bitter week for Vegas, simultaneously dealing with this Stanley Cup loss and preparing for a pivotal summer. But I expect this team to be wheeling and dealing shortly, and it’s going to start with a massive decision on their Russian sniper.”
The decisions for the Golden Knights continue beyond the ice to behind the bench as well, with John Tortorella’s contract as head coach also expiring. The 67-year-old guided the Golden Knights to a 7-0-1 finish to the regular season upon taking over and led the club to an improbable playoff run, going 14-8 in the postseason.
“I feel very fortunate how this all came about, and just kind of in a weird way at the end of the year,” Tortorella said after Vegas was eliminated in Game 6 of the final. “And then to get locked in with these guys, I just feel fortunate to get to know the team, get to know the organization, first-class organization, and just to have the opportunity.
“Like I said, I’ve wanted to coach, I want to coach. And to jump into this with this gang, I feel so fortunate.”
Update: The Golden Knights announced Tuesday that Tortorella will not return as head coach next season. Vegas will need to find a new voice behind the bench this off-season.
Offer Sheets Possible?
Shayna Goldman of The Athletic included Dorofeyev in her list of “six realistic offer-sheet candidates NHL teams should target this off-season.“
Taking that route to acquire the Russian sniper could be a costly proposition, though. A salary of $9.55 million or higher would cost an acquiring team two first-round picks, along with an additional second- and third-rounder. A salary north of $11.94 million would cost four first-round picks.
Goldman writes that lower-profile players such as Mackie Samoskevich of the Florida Panthers, Mavrik Bourque of the Dallas Stars and Jack Drury of the Colorado Avalanche could also be candidates with the cost to acquire them being significantly lower. A salary of $4.78 million to $7.16 million would cost the signing team a first- and third-round pick if unmatched by the player’s current club and a salary between $2.39 million and $4.77 million would cost just a 2027 second-round pick.
Two names who could shake up the off-season if they were to sign offer sheets as promising blueliners Brandt Clarke of the Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim’s Olen Zellweger. Goldman notes that the Kings may not be ready to commit long-term to Clarke which could open the door to an offer sheet, while Zellweger could fall below Leo Carlsson and Cutter Gauthier in the pecking order for the Ducks.
Just four offer sheets have been signed in the past decade, with the St. Louis Blues responsible for two of them, used to nab Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway from the Edmonton Oilers in 2024. The Montreal Canadiens attempted to acquire Sebastian Aho via an offer sheet in 2019, but the deal was matched by the Carolina Hurricanes. The Hurricanes struck back at the Canadiens two years later successfully acquiring Jesperi Kotkaniemi via one-year, $6.1 million offer sheet.
One Big Question: Maple Leafs
TSN’s One Big Question series kicked off Monday with Craig Button and Mike Johnson discussing whether the Toronto Maple Leafs can do enough this summer to return to the playoff next season.
The series continues Tuesday with the Ottawa Senators.
