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The Vegas Golden Knights just keep on adding. Ever since their inaugural season ended in a Stanley Cup Final run, they have opened up a competitive window through trades and signings. They kept it up this summer, pulling off a sign-and-trade for Mitch Marner. Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman reports that just because Marner is there doesn't mean that Jack Eichel is leaving the Golden Knights or taking a discount.
“Vegas [has] already begun to tackle how it will look with Jack Eichel; I assume it's going to be over Marner's number,” Friedman said on the 32 Thoughts Podcast. “I find it very hard to believe that the Golden Knights wouldn't have gone to Eichel and said, ‘Look, you're worth eleventy-billion dollars, but we can get Mitch Marner… You're worth whatever you want, but we gotta make this work and you can win here, and we can all win more together.' And I think that'll work with Eichel… I just think Vegas is too proactive and too smart not to have tackled this already.” [H/T NHL Trade Rumors]
The Golden Knights came into the offseason with very little cap space, but Alex Pietrangelo's injury helped them sign Marner. For Eichel, they won't need something like that. The cap is going up by $8.5 million next summer, helping Vegas fit Eichel in at something over $12 million per season. He currently makes $10 million per year.
Losing Pietrangelo is massive for the Golden Knights. His injury is a big hit to their blue line, which also lost Nic Hague this summer. Brayden McNabb and Zach Whitecloud are the only righty defenseman on the current roster.
The Golden Knights will be contenders in the Western Conference again this year. And if they can keep Jack Eichel for the remainder of his prime, they will be for a long time.
