With the All-Star hiatus over, the focus shifts to the regular season stretch run and the NHL's March 8 trade deadline.
The race is already underway in the Western Conference, with Calgary and Vancouver adding important pieces over the last week. How will Las Vegas approach the deadline, once again firmly in playoff position? General manager Kelly McCrimmon and president of hockey operations George McPhee especially believe their team is the favorite to win the championship. If you were ever aggressive. There's every reason to believe the Golden Knights are just such a team, as the defending champions finished in the top five in their conference despite a rash of injuries.
If the roster is healthy, there aren't many glaring weaknesses. Las Vegas ranks eighth in the league in points and points against, despite missing Jack Eichel, William Karlsson, Shea Theodore and Addin Hill for extended periods of time.
If the Golden Knights decide to add a player before the deadline, it would most likely be on the wing.There are a number of wingers who could be traded, and we'll discuss this in more detail in the coming weeks, but there's one. athletic The Board of Trade shouts “Golden Knight of Vegas.”
That would be Riley Smith, the third-leading goal and point scorer in franchise history.
Smith appeared in 487 games in a Golden Knights uniform before being traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins last summer due to a cap injury. He wore a letter in his sweater for most games and was a key contributor in all aspects of the game.
The question is, will McCrimmon and McPhee channel their inner John Belushi and “reunite the band” to get back on track? Having the original Golden Knight again will give fans across the Las Vegas Valley a warm fuzzy feeling entering the final stretch, but the reasons why Smith is one of the best players for Las Vegas go beyond nostalgia. There are many reasons.
Will the Penguins move Smith?
It's only been seven months since the Penguins traded a third-round pick to Vegas to acquire Smith, but he hasn't been the fit Pittsburgh expected. The 32-year-old has had one of his worst seasons offensively, with just eight goals and 12 assists in 40 games this year. These numbers were despite a strong start to the season in which Smith scored 11 points in his first 10 games. Since then, he has scored just nine points in 30 games playing next to Evgeni Malkin for most of the time.
Pittsburgh currently sits in 10th place in the Eastern Conference, seven points behind the final Wild Card spot, the Red Wings. The Penguins are in third place in the Metropolitan Division, five points behind the Flyers, with four games left, so they still have a chance to make the playoffs, but it's not a sure thing.
The idea of the Penguins bringing Smith back to Las Vegas isn't far-fetched. Consider the following realities.
Smith didn't fit well with the Penguins, and while he seemed to have a lot of chemistry with Malkin early on, he was not only unproductive, but also unremarkable.
It has long been suspected that Smith did not want to be traded from Las Vegas and did not fully embrace the idea of playing in Pittsburgh.
Although he has been a complete professional this season, the fact that he did not give any interviews during the summer following the June trade has led to the idea that he may not be happy with his contract. Ta. It seems like his feelings haven't changed.
• Penguins are in unpredictable places. They could easily make it to the playoffs. It's also easy to fall sharply and enter a short position within a month.
In the latter case, Smith would be a logical candidate for the Penguins to deal with.
In theory, they could choose to move him in a hockey trade if they want to build up at the deadline. If Smith continues to struggle, the chances of him being dealt increase and the Golden Knights would be considered the frontrunner for his services.
But don't expect anything to happen right away. Kyle Dubas is still in the observation period with his new team. Many close to the Penguins manager believe he will wait until March before making any significant contracts.
The Penguins moved Smith to the top power play unit fresh off an injury in an effort to revitalize a stagnant season.
But at this moment, the idea that he's permanently locked into the Penguins' plans doesn't seem to be true.
Smith's contract has a 10-team no-trade clause, which should only come in handy if the Golden Knights want to trade him. Smith has strong ties to Las Vegas on and off the ice and would likely welcome a return.
He remains close with his former teammates. He accompanies the White House visit in November and appears on the Las Vegas bench during a break in the Golden Knights vs. Penguins game on Jan. 20, chatting with Jonathan Marchessault while watching Marchessault's sons skate. It had just been seen.
Can Smith help the Golden Knights?
Smith's frenetic scoring streak is nothing new, but his overall game rarely wavers. He's the type of player coach Bruce Cassidy likes, with strong defense and good vision for the puck. He would also strengthen the weakest part of the Golden Knights' lineup.
Cassidy built a top-three front in a very specific way during last year's playoffs, with two strong offensive players each and one who doesn't typically score but can pitch when surrounded by playmakers. Configured.
The top line was led by Eichel and Marchessault, and Ivan Barbashev found a way to contribute in front of the net. The second row was Mark Stone and Chandler Stevenson with assists from Brett Howden. Third place went to Karlsson, Smith and Michael Amadio. This setup created an incredibly balanced lineup that dominated most nights.
This season, without Smith, Karlsson has played most of his games with a combination of Amadio, Paul Cotter and Pavel Dorofeev. Kotter and Dorofeev are both great young players, but they may not yet be as ready as you would expect them to be consistently in the playoffs. Las Vegas is also in a position to play in the top nine with him being the only injured forward. Adding Smith, or another winger of his talent, would immediately improve the balance in Las Vegas.
So why choose Smith over other winger options on the trade market? He's much more certain. Las Vegas has made trades at almost every deadline. Some new players came in and were a perfect fit, like Barbashev last season and Alec Martinez in 2020. Both created an immediate chemistry and have become important pieces since joining the team.
There was something that seemed like a good fit stylistically at the time of the deal, but it just didn't work out. Tomas Tatar seemed like the right type of player to add to the team in 2017-18, when he flew all over the ice and scored in transition, but he scored just 8 points in 28 games in Las Vegas and missed out on games. The majority of cases resulted in healthy wounds. playoffs that year. Nick Cousins, acquired in 2020, has been an under-the-radar type of player that the Golden Knights have had success with, but he has only scored one goal in 24 games in Vegas.
That means players can rarely be sure of how they will fit into their new team. This is a rare situation where the Golden Knights know exactly how Smith will fit both on the ice and in the locker room. Las Vegas could trade him just before the March 8 deadline and have him in the lineup the next day against the Red Wings, but a complete shift isn't necessary for him and Karlsson to find their rhythm. Dew.
Will Las Vegas be able to fit Smith under the salary cap?
The biggest hurdle to this trade, or any deadline move for Las Vegas, is getting a new contract done within a tight salary cap. According to Cap Friendly, the Golden Knights currently have about $4.5 million in cap space, including $5.2 million in cap space for Theodore on long-term injured reserve. He is expected to return this season, leaving Vegas with essentially no cap space. So any trade requires a cap exercise, but the Golden Knights are one of the better teams in the NHL at making the numbers work.
Smith carries a $5 million cap hit this season and next, which is the biggest reason he was traded to Pittsburgh in the first place. However, Las Vegas and Pittsburgh could involve a third team in a trade to retain some of Smith's cap hit in exchange for a draft pick. The Golden Knights have already made several trades this way. When Vegas acquired Robin Lehner from Chicago in 2020, the Maple Leafs retained a portion of Robin Lehner's salary, and when Vegas acquired Matthias Janmark in 2021, the Sharks acquired Matthias Janmark. He took on some of Mark's cap hit.
Teams like Chicago, Anaheim, Buffalo, Columbus, and Arizona all have plenty of cap space and could use it as a weapon at the deadline. It would cost Vegas an extra pick, but considering they had acquired a third-round pick from Pittsburgh in the original trade for Smith, they ended up paying a lot of money to re-acquire him. It seems unlikely that I will pay. If Smith's cap hit can be reduced to 50 percent ($2.5 million), he would be extremely valuable for the remainder of this season and the 2024-25 season.
This potential deal is far from certain. The Penguins will probably want to use Smith for the postseason. Perhaps with another year left on Smith's contract, cap gymnastics will be extremely difficult to pull off.
There are definitely hurdles, but if there's one realistic trade that would generate excitement in the Golden Knights' fan base and, more importantly, in the dressing room, this might be it.
(Photo by Riley Smith: Kim Klement Neitzel / USA Today)
