NHL Rumors: Vegas Golden Knights, San Jose Sharks, Minnesota Wild

Welcome to another edition of Full Press Hockey’s NHL Rumors! The 2022-23 season is over, and players and front offices will be evaluated. Now, the focus shifts toward the new season.

This Wednesday’s edition of NHL Rumors will examine the Vegas Golden Knights, San Jose Sharks, and the Minnesota Wild.

NHL rumors in this edition include:

Will the Golden Knights pursue Elias Pettersson? Will the Sharks trade  Kevin Labanc? Can the cap-strapped Wild find money to sign young Calen Addison?

Vegas Golden Knights – Elias Pettersson

Rumor: Per – Chris Gawlik – vegashockeynow.com. If Jonathan Marchessault and Chandler Stephenson don’t get extensions, will the Vegas club go after Pettersson?

Pettersson had a terrific season, yet his team failed to make the playoffs. He has only participated in postseason play once since signing in Vancouver. He accumulated 102 points in 80 games last season. We all know how crafty the Golden Knights are about acquiring star players. Pettersson would at least have a good shot of being involved in the playoffs, and who knows, maybe even hoist a Cup.

Yet, he is in no rush to re-sign, as he told sportsnet.ca’s Elliotte Friedman in an interview. “I got one more year left over there. And I don’t want to rush into anything because I still don’t know myself if it’s going to be a short- or long-term (contract),” Pettersson told Friedman. “It’s going to be probably my biggest contract so far. So I don’t want to stress anything.” 

As usual, cap space limitations must be taken into consideration. If the Golden Knights were to extend both Marchessault and Stephenson, it might total about $11.5 million between the two of them at fair market value. The Vegas club currently only has $851,683 in cap space, limiting what they can do. If Marchessault gets traded, the team will need a go-to scorer, and Pettersson fits that bill. He has a $7.35 million contract and looks to get a big increase based on his last season’s statistics.

Ultimately, the Golden Knights want to stay competitive and strive for another Cup. They always seem to get the player(s) they need to accomplish that. Will Pettersson be next? You’ll need to stay tuned to fullpresshockey.com’s NHL rumors to find out.

San Jose Sharks – Kevin Labanc

Rumor: Per – Colin Gallant – clutchpoints.com. The Sharks figure to be one of the worst teams in the NHL as the rebuild continues, and they need to trade players for draft capital.

The Sharks need to sell and get younger to entertain a proper rebuild, and with the cap hardly increasing over the last few seasons, big contracts have become extremely difficult to move. That’s probably why it took so long to get Erik Karlsson dealt. Labanc may not be too easy to move. He has a $4.5 million AAV in the last year of the deal. His season stats were not impressive, with just 15 goals and 18 assists in 72 games. That’s a far cry from his 2018-19 season when he tallied 56 points, including 17 goals while playing all 82 games.

Labanc is only 27 years old, and it could be hoped that if he is traded, he will revive his career. At this point, the Sharks need to gain more draft picks and young prospects if they hope to come out of the rebuild in good shape. For whatever reason, GM Mike Grier saw fit to acquire Anthony Duclair, who is in the last year of his contract. The Sharks need to either sign him to a long-term deal or trade him at the deadline for future assets. He would have been better off being dealt to a contending team, as his future in the Bay area may be limited. With Labanc being demoted to the fourth line, he may see fit to accept a trade sooner rather than later.

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Minnesota Wild – Calen Addison

Rumor: Per – Brian La Rose – prohockeyrumors.com. Last month, it was reported that the team hoped Addison would either take his qualifying offer worth $787.5K or sign for close to it.

The only problem with the Wild’s point of view is that Addison should be earning about $2.486 million, according to dobberhockey.com. It seems the two parties are miles apart on a contract. The issue with Addison is he is a restricted free agent and has little bargaining power. It could come to him demanding a trade, and he certainly wouldn’t be criticized for doing that. He has become a power play specialist on the Wild blue line. The Wild presented him with a $787,500 qualifying offer, which he has yet to sign.

The entire issue here is how the past Wild management botched any future cap space to be available by signing both Ryan Suter and Zach Parise to 13-year $98 million deals back in 2012. It has affected the Wild’s cap space immensely. The pair of players is due $7.37 million for the next two seasons. Consequently, a good D-man like Addison may be forced to be traded since the team only has about $1.6 million in cap space.

Perhaps something can be worked out with a back-loaded contract for Addison, but at this point, it seems like he could be traded unless another player can be moved to gain some cap space.

That concludes this edition of NHL rumors. Be sure to check our next article, and thanks for reading!