The Arizona Coyotes and Vegas Golden Knights have made a trade ahead of the March 3, 2023 trade deadline. The Golden Knights have acquired defenseman Dysin Mayo in exchange for Shea Weber’s contract and a 2023 fifth-round draft pick. Weber has now been in three trades, two since retiring due to injury.
The Coyotes have a history of working as a franchise that takes on money or contracts in exchange for assets like picks and prospects. This deal is just another example of that as the Coyotes will take over Weber’s contract and help the Golden Knights’ LTIR situation, allowing them more cap flexibility. This frees up Vegas to make a subsequent trade and acquire a player with term. Having Weber at $7.85 million for three more seasons in LTIR severely limited their roster flexibility.
Meanwhile, they also picked up a player in Mayo who the team has immediately assigned to the AHL’s Henderson Silver Knights. Mayo, 26, has played 82 NHL games for the Coyotes in the past two seasons, including 15 in 2022-23. The Victoria, British Columbia, native has four goals and 12 points in his NHL career.
Shedding Weber’s contract, which was due at a $7.86 million cap hit through 2026, makes maneuvering the offseason salary cap much easier. This is a team that constantly works right up at the salary cap ceiling and uses LTIR to fit in many of the moves they try to make during a season and summer. Meanwhile, PuckPedia notes the Coyotes will only owe Weber under $3 million in actual money for the remainder of the contract. This deal helps the Coyotes reach the salary cap floor, something they often struggle to do as they are consistently sellers each season. They still have just $52.8 million in cap charges next season.
This isn’t the first time the Coyotes have tried to acquire Weber’s contract. They did so last year with an attempted trade with the Canadiens that never materialized.
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