If it wasn’t big enough news that the Golden Knights were prepared to potentially upend their team to add one of the best defenseman in the NHL, there’s news today that the organization was rumored to be in on two other big-name forwards.
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According to Elliotte Friedman, during his 31 Thoughts podcast, the Vegas Golden Knights made a pitch for unrestricted free agent Taylor Hall and had a discussion about adding Steven Stamkos via a trade with the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Friedman noted on Hall, “The other thing here that’s really interesting is, I think Vegas was one of the finalists for Taylor Hall. I think they wanted to do it.” When asked if it was a long-term deal or short-term deal, Friedman said, “Short-term deal, it was one year. I would guess they were offering him around five [million], but they wanted him.”
What that means is that the Golden Knights would have had to move more players than just Nate Schmidt and Paul Stastny to create the room to fit in a player like Hall’s salary. That could have meant the exit of forwards like Max Pacioretty or Jonathan Marchessault.
On Stamkos, Friedman added, “And I’ll tell you another thing too. There’s a whole situation in Tampa over Steven Stamkos, and I believe Tampa has gone to Stamkos and asked him if he would waive.” He noted, “And I think Vegas at least had a conversation about it.”
Vegas Is Going After Everyone!
GM Kelly McCrimmon has said publicly that he’s going to be the type of GM to go after the best players and would seize opportunities that don’t come around very often. But, would he have really tried to add two of, if not all three of these players if the opportunity to do so was there?
It seems insane to think he could have pulled it off, but somehow the Golden Knights have been able to do the unthinkable with the salary cap. It’s hard to say he couldn’t have made it work if either player was willing.
Ultimately, Hall chose the Sabres. There was no detail given about whether or not Stamkos even considered waiving his no-trade clause.
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