In an effort to make the necessary cap room for Alex Pietrangelo, defenseman Nate Schmidt is being traded by the Vegas Golden Knights to the Florida Panthers. Andy Strickland, a St. Louis Blues insider broke the news on Sunday evening.
As reports surface, it sounds like Vegas has been working on this trade for days and this was the “necessary evil” of adding Pietrangelo considering the team was having no luck moving goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury. It comes days after the Golden Knights also traded Paul Stastny.
Schmidt is a strong all-around defender who does well in tough minutes while signed to a relatively fair deal for the next five seasons. He’ll do well for the Panthers. He’s a top-pair two-way defenceman on any team in the NHL. His defensive numbers fell off this season but there’s a lot of people in Vegas who won’t love this move.
Of course, when this deal is finalized, it will only be a matter of time before the Golden Knights likely announce the official signing of Alex Pietrangelo.
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