Vegas Golden Knights: Keeping Nikita Gusev is imperative

If the Vegas Golden Knights want to continue to have success, they must find a way to keep Nikita Gusev around despite their cap crunch.

Even after trading defenseman Colin Miller and forward Erik Haula, the Vegas Golden Knights aren’t out of their salary cap hole yet. They are currently over the salary cap ceiling of $81.5 million, though that’s before putting David Clarkson on the long-term injured reserve list. But even with him on the list, they still only have $2.5 million of cap space. This could make it hard for them to keep potential star forward Nikita Gusev around.

Gusev has been in trade rumors because of his disagreement about his new contract. According to Jesse Granger of The Athletic, the two sides are about $2 million per year apart. The Golden Knights are offering $2 million a year while Gusev wants $4 million.

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$4 million annually is a very reasonable ask for Gusev. If anything, it’s a bargain. That’s the same AAV former teammate Evgenii Dadonov got with the Florida Panthers back in 2017.

At 27 years old, Gusev is younger than Dadonov was when he signed. Gusev is also the more decorated forward of the two.

He’s not the only free agent the Golden Knights have to worry about. There’s also defenseman Jimmy Schuldt and backup goaltender Malcolm Subban.

They’d like to bring back Deryk Engelland as well. The Golden Knights have two options – make moves to make room for Gusev and the other free agents or trade Gusev.

Vegas ought to at least try the first option before the second. Ryan Reaves would be at the top of the list of trade candidates for two reasons. First of all, he has a $2.775 million cap hit. Solely by trading Reaves, the Golden Knights would create enough room to sign Gusev.

Secondly, keeping Gusev is better than keeping Reaves. Reaves is a fourth-line forward. Gusev has the potential to be much more than that. Trading Clarkson’s deal would help as well, as that would give them a bit more breathing room as the season progresses.

Next, Vegas would have to trade either Nick Holden or Jon Merill. The former has a $2.2 million cap hit while the latter has a $1.375 million cap hit. Holden would be the preferable guy to go, but Merill would also be fine.

That’s a lot of trouble just to keep a player who hasn’t even played in the NHL yet around. But Gusev is worth it.

In the NHL, you need to have stars to win. Gusev has the potential to be one, albeit not at the same level as Mark Stone. In every league Gusev has played in, he has dominated. He led the KHL in scoring last season and did so by a comfortable margin.

Gusev’s greatest strengths are his skating and his playmaking. He’s extremely fast and he’s capable of making his linemates better. That’s not common from a wing. Gusev is also a pretty decent goal scorer.

He’s shown flashes of the potential to drive his own line. If Gusev can do that, getting him at $4 million a season would be highway robbery. Wings who can do that get paid a ton of money. Gusev would likely start on Vegas’ third line, but could easily move up.

Even if he stays on their third line, he’d be worth the cost of creating cap space to keep around. The Pittsburgh Penguins, Washington Capitals, and St. Louis Blues, the past four Stanley Cup champions, have proven you need three scoring lines to win the Stanley Cup. Gusev has the ability to transform the Golden Knights third line into a scoring line.

Keeping Gusev would mean Vegas would, once again, be going all-in. But they’ve been pushing in their chips for as long as they have existed. It’s worked well for them, as no expansion team has seen the immediate success Vegas has.