Vegas Golden Knights center Nicolas Roy, right, celebrates after scoring against the Nashville Predators during the first period of an NHL hockey game at T-Mobile Arena Thursday, March 24, 2022. Vegas Golden Knights center Jonathan Marchessault (81) is at left.
Published Monday, Aug. 8, 2022 | 1:38 p.m.
Updated Monday, Aug. 8, 2022 | 3:10 p.m.
The Golden Knights have put the finishing touches on one of their more important pieces of business this summer, signing center Nicolas Roy to a five-year contract extension, the team announced today.
The long-term deal carries a cap hit of $3 million per year.
Roy, a restricted free agent this summer, did not elect for an arbitration hearing, with the two sides eventually coming to an agreement on a new deal. The 25-year-old center posted a career-high 39 points last season with 15 goals. His 78 games played were also an NHL best for him.
Roy is the second RFA to agree to a new deal in the last 72 hours. Vegas signed forward Keegan Kolesar to a three-year deal at a $1.4 million average annual value.
The Golden Knights acquired Roy in the summer of 2019 in a trade with the Carolina Hurricanes. At the time, Roy was just a throw-in for a deal that was centered around former Vegas forward Erik Haula. Since then, Roy has progressed into a reliable middle-six option at both center and wing, primarily the former.
Roy has seen an uptick in games since coming to Vegas and has been tasked with more responsibility as the years have gone. From starting as a fourth-liner whose best skill was winning defensive-zone faceoffs, Roy has shown a scoring touch the past two years with 21 goals. He won 48% of his faceoffs last season, tops on the team.
With Roy's contract no longer a pressing matter, defenseman Nic Hague and forward Jake Leschyshyn are the Golden Knights' final two restricted free agents that need to be signed.
According to CapFriendly, the Golden Knights have approximately $2.06 million in cap space to work with to sign Hague and Leschyshyn. That includes the cap hits for goalie Laurent Brossoit and forward Nolan Patrick. Those two moving to long-term injured reserve, which could be the likely move ahead of training camp, would allow the Golden Knights to exceed the cap by close to $5.58 million and sign those two while finding their replacements from within.
There's also the status of No. 1 goalie Robin Lehner that needs to be taken into consideration with his status still up in the air following offseason shoulder surgery, but dragging the remaining negotiations closer to training camp is still a factor.
Danny Webster can be reached at 702-259-8814 or [email protected]. Follow Danny on Twitter at twitter.com/DannyWebster21.
