Vegas is going to have to unload Dadonov or Reilly Smith this spring if everyone comes back healthy.
They have obviously done well with big names either via trade or UFA signing, but they also rather stupidly have had to trade away guys for almost nothing due to their cap situation.
-Traded away Stastny for a no-name prospect and a 4th round pick - their fault, they signed Stastny to a 3 x 6.5
-Traded away Nate Schmidt for a 3rd rounder - their fault, they signed him a to 6 x ~6
-Traded away Fleury for nothing - their fault for signing him and Lehner to those deals
-Acquired Dadonov for reasons?? He looks bad so far.
I mean, credit to ownership for willing to spend way beyond the cap in a covid world with a flat-ish cap on the horizon and for their hockey ops being willing to go for it. At some point, these contracts will hurt them but they have a 3-4 year window to win a Cup to make it worthwhile.
In '26-'27, they'll owe a 33-year old William Karlsson $5.9m, a 36-year old Alex Pietrangelo $8.8m, and a 34-year old Mark Stone $9.5m. And those aren't even the last year of any of those deals.