With former Toronto Maple Leafs winger Mitch Marner set to hit the free agency market on July 1st, no one will be surprised to hear that the Vegas Golden Knights would like to clear some cap space to make a firm offer to the 28-year-old offensive dynamo. Since joining the NHL, Vegas has had a habit of going after the big game and getting their target. Just think about Jack Eichel or Max Pacioretty when the Montreal Canadiens wanted to trade them.
Vegas has no problem moving on from big names, either. Just remember how they got rid of Marc-Andre Fleury after he posted 36 wins, a 1.98 goals-against average, and a .928 save percentage just four years after rolling out the red carpet for him at the expansion draft.
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With their sights set on Marner, the Knights need to clear cap space. They currently $9,615,000 in projected cap space with 17 of their 23 roster players signed. Two players who could be good candidates to move are centers, which could potentially interest the Canadiens, even if they could be stop-gap solutions.
32-year-old left-shot center William Karlsson has two years left on his eight-year pact, which had a $5.9 M AAV. After producing 60 points in 70 games during the 2023-24 season, there was a significant dip in his production last season, when he could only pick up 29 points in 53 games playing primarily on the Knights’ third line alongside the likes of Brett Howden, Reilly Smith, and Alexander Holtz. The fact that he missed two months of action certainly didn’t help either.
His contract includes a modified no-trade clause, according to which he can provide a 10-team no-trade list. It’s conceivable that the Canadiens could be on that list, even if it is a short one. After all, not everyone wants to play North of the border.
The price tag on his acquisition shouldn’t be too high either, after all, the Knights need to clear cap space, so they’re unlikely to be after roster players, and they have more or less given players away in the past, as seen with Logan Thompson or Pacioretty, for instance. The Habs have plenty of draft picks and prospects to trade, while Vegas only has six picks in this week’s draft and five at next year’s and no first-round pick in either year. Meanwhile, Montreal has 12 this year and nine next season.
The other possibility, which would clear even more cap space for Vegas, would be to move Tomas Hertl. The 31-year-old is also a left-shot center and has five years left on a contract with a $6.75M cap hit. He was acquired by the Knights in March 2024 and had already signed that big contract with the San Jose Sharks before being traded. The central issue, aside from the higher cap hit, is that he has a full no-movement clause, so the Canadiens would need to convince him to waive it to acquire him.
Last season, Hertl put up 61 points in 73 games playing on Vegas’ second line, and he sounds like a player who has the talent necessary to get the best out of Ivan Demidov and perhaps even Patrik Laine. However, a sizable contract with a 31-year-old that still has six years to go is quite a commitment, and chances are, the pact would hurt in the long run.
While an aging veteran with a big contract may not be Kent Hughes’ plan A to shore up his top six, the reality is that the market is saturated by buyers right now. With so few sellers, there will be plenty of disappointed sides once Summer is over.
Photo credit: Brian Bradshaw Sevald-Imagn Images
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