Knights planning on moving a D-Man?

 Knights shopping a defensemen.

In today’s blog post we are looking at the Vegas Golden Knights as I've seen a couple of recent reports saying that the Knights may be willing to move off of a defender this offseason to try and help them add elsewhere.

Now we looked at the Knights as they were just recently eliminated by the Edmonton Oilers so there's going to be a lot of change as we know that every time Vegas gets eliminated early on from the postseason there's lots of changes with that team, so it seems like they are going to be looking to probably try and add some more forward help as it seems like the consensus not only around Vegas fans, but also around media talking about Vegas is that the Golden Knights will be trying to add some more forward firepower maybe in the top six or in the top nine and I could see them try and go after guy like Ehlers, Boeser or Marner or could see them trying to go a different route we'll have to wait and see on that, but they will be trying to add some forward help and that has led to a lot of people to thinking that they could move a defenseman to help facilitate that.

Now they don't have too much cap space right now so moving a defensemen to try and free up some cap space or to try and help them get forward help would be a very smart move there for the Vegas Golden Knights, now if you look at their defense and you look at who they could potentially try and move they have Whitecloud on a long-term deal, McNabb’s on a long-term deal, Pietrangelo is one of their best defensemen, Theodore and Hanifin were just signed to a long-term extensions, they have Ben Hutton and Lucas Cormier who could definitely play as depth defensemen so with that in mind, it comes down to two options and that is Kaiden Korczak or Nic Hague.

Sergei Belski Imagn Images

Now Hague has been the one Golden Knights prospect that's actually been able to grow with the team as there have been a couple that have been able to come through since then, but from that original Vegas Golden Knights draft, Hague (who was their first ever second round pick) has been doing great for the Vegas Golden Knights but he's an RFA, he was just making $2.9 million and he's probably going to want to have a pay bump to like $3.5-4 Million AAV and I don't think the Golden Knights are going to be willing to pay that and Korczak still has got a year left and he's on a rookie deal, so with that in mind it seems like Nic Hague is probably the most likely trade candidate for the Knights as they could  trade him to free up some cap space and guys like Korczak, Hutton or Cormier could all fill into that last spot on the third pair or they could try and go after a cheap defenseman in free agency.

So we'll have to wait and see on that, but with the Golden Knights most likely wanting to go after some forward help and maybe targeting some big time forwards they would need cap space to do so, so do not be surprised if they try and move off of a defender like a Hague to free up some cap space so keep your eye on the Knights and Hague heading to the offseason.