Top 3 moves the Vegas Golden Knights must make to win a Stanley Cup

Find An Upgrade Over Paul Stastny

Paul Stastny is a pretty solid center. But he’s not cutting it as the second line center for the Golden Knights. Stastny had a down year for the Golden Knights, both during the regular season and postseason.

The regular season saw Stastny put up 38 points in 71 games. 22 of those points came at 5v5 despite getting regular minutes with guys like Max Pacioretty, Mark Stone, Reilly Smith, and Jonathan Marchessault. In 41 games with Vegas, Chandler Stephenson had 17 5v5 points.

During the postseason, Stastny was their least used center at 5v5 according to Natural Stat Trick. Not ideal for someone has a $6.5 million cap hit for next season.

Trading Stastny won’t be easy, especially during these troubling times. A lot of teams are bleeding money at this point. His $6.5 million cap hit isn’t going to be attractive for many teams. But maybe they can find a hockey trade.

That said, Stastny’s still a pretty good player. Teams are always looking to add to their top-six forwards. Stastny might be coming off a down year, but his resume is pretty consistent. With retained salary, the Golden Knights could probably get a mid-round pick for him. And some much needed cap space.

As far as replacing him, Vegas has some options. They could internally replace him with Chandler Stephenson or they could see what’s out there in free agency and the trade market.