Golden Knights Focus on Familiar Faces
NHL
James Neal and David Perron
Recently, James Neal rejected a $25 million, five-year contract from the Vegas Golden Knights. Neal was hoping to get a deal worth around $6-7 million average annually. Last season, Neal scored 25 goals and was an instrumental player in the team’s success. As a result, he might be able to pull off such an offer as an in-your-face type forward who has both size and scoring capabilities. However, Neal has an eight-team no-trade clause in his contract.
David Perron, however, had a 66-point season. Like Neal, Perron has a no-trade clause in his contract. Perron has a three-team no-trade clause. No offers have been made since the end of the season. Ultimately, if neither player gets signed, they’re going to either become free agents or be traded.
Should the Knights focus on these current players? If the team could only afford one of these two players, then it should be James Neal. He was a bigger player in the journey towards the Cup Final. Additionally, fans have a love for Neal that is greater than their love for Perron.
Honestly more upset about losing James Neal from the Knights than getting ghosted by this boy from Pennsylvania
— Amanda ? (@captainamandica) June 27, 2018
Large-cap space, even bigger players
One of the biggest reasons that Neal and Perron have fallen to the wayside are the even bigger players on the Vegas roster. Both William Karlsson and Marc Andre-Fleury are restricted free agents on the team. Karlsson had a fantastic season with the Knights. His current two year, $2 million contract will more than likely inflate up to around $5 million a year. It seems clear that both Karlsson and Fleury have priority when it comes to opening the checkbooks for a new contract.
Possible Players for the Knights during free agency
The Knights have a relatively large cap space. With that, free agents such as Erik Karlsson and John Tavares may have caught the franchise’s eye. With the four aforementioned players, both on the team and off, Neal and Perron become expendable. Will the Vegas Golden Knights during free agency fight for free agents? Or focus on the players they already had a near Cup-winning experience with?
