Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Examining Sami Vatanen as a trade target for the Golden Knights

Vatanen

Gerry Broome / AP

New Jersey Devils defenseman Sami Vatanen skates against the Carolina Hurricanes during a game in Raleigh, N.C., Saturday, Nov. 2, 2019. New Jersey won 5-3.

NEWARK, N.J. — The Golden Knights already swung a trade this week, but there’s nothing to keep them from using the rest of the road trip to scout for another potential trade target.

Tuesday night at Prudential Center, the Golden Knights took on Taylor Hall, the 2017 MVP who is in a contract year with the Devils and is reportedly on the trade block.

Hall would be a boon to any team’s offense, a dynamic playmaker who carries a cap hit of $6 million, pennies for a player of his caliber. With a need at left wing, it makes sense that the Golden Knights would be interested in acquiring him and creating perhaps the best forward group in the NHL.

But that’s not the Devil they should have their eye on. Vegas’ most-pressing need is defense, and it just so happens New Jersey has someone on the blue line it could be looking to move.

Sami Vatanen is a 28-year-old, right-handed defenseman with four goals and 10 points in 23 games this season. He is an unrestricted free agent at the end of the year and counts $4.875 million against the cap this season.

Vatanen has been a solid offensive performer his entire career, peaking with 29 assists and 38 points with the Ducks in 2015-16 and turning in 28 assists and 32 points two years ago. That point production is right about where Nate Schmidt and Shea Theodore have been as Golden Knights.

He’s responsible in his own end and plays on the power play and penalty kill. He’s been one of the best players on a bad New Jersey team and as the Devils spiral toward another draft lottery, it stands to reason that they would try to cash any chips they have. And as the Golden Knights know, sometimes these things can come together quickly.

“Last year we made a really big trade at the trade deadline, but that morning it was more likely that we would make no trades, so you don’t know for sure,” Vegas general manager Kelly McCrimmon said. “You do your work, you stay prepared, you make decisions as you go.”

Some feel Vegas should go after St. Louis’ Alex Pietrangelo, but the Blues aren’t trading their captain when they’re hunting for another Cup. He’s a free agent at the end of the year, and while St. Louis may not have the cap space to retain him, that doesn’t really help the Golden Knights now.

Vatanen would settle onto the right side of the blue line in Vegas. He would allow Nate Schmidt or Shea Theodore, two left-handers, to shift back to their natural side, or would create three strong options on the right side. He could spell Brayden McNabb and Deryk Engelland on the penalty kill so they don’t have to play about seven short-handed minutes like they did on Monday in New York.

Vatanen could play behind Theodore on the second power-play unit, where he has been New Jersey’s top option at the point. Vegas has shown it’s not afraid to play offensively gifted defensemen even on the third pair, because they did just that with Colin Miller the last two years.

The Golden Knights don’t like to acquire rentals — president of hockey operations George McPhee has reiterated plenty of times — and while Vatanen is a free agent at the end of the year, they have some cap space this summer if they want to retain him. Or perhaps they go free-agent hunting for Pietrangelo or Tyson Barrie or any of the other options.

So what would it cost to acquire Vatanen? That’s a complex question and one without a definitive answer. It would depend on what the Devils are looking for, and whether they want that help now or in the future.

It doesn’t make sense for New Jersey to acquire veteran players unless they are part of a bigger deal, and it doesn’t make sense for the Golden Knights to weaken one part of their roster to bolster another. Any potential trade would likely involve futures — either draft picks or prospects. Vegas has plenty of both.

There have been quite a few NHL defensemen traded over the past year to help show comparable trade value.

At one spectrum of such players is Justin Faulk, traded with a conditional fifth-round pick from the Hurricanes to the Blues for two players and a seventh-round pick. Both teams were competing though, and this was more of a hockey trade than a rebuilding team sending assets to a competing one. Faulk also had a better track record of success and is a year younger. He’s probably a step above Vatanen.

More realistic comps would include Justin Braun, who the Sharks moved to Philadelphia for a second- and third-round pick, and Calvin de Haan, who was traded with a prospect from Carolina to Chicago for Anton Forsberg and Gustav Forsling. What about a right-handed offensive defenseman who the Golden Knights just traded? Miller netted Vegas a second- and third-round pick this summer in a trade with Buffalo.

Helping in the Golden Knights’ favor in a trade is that they would not be acquiring a full season of Vatanen. If they traded for him today, he would still play less than two-thirds of the season in Vegas, so New Jersey can’t recoup full value for him.

The Golden Knights like their prospects and have plenty of draft picks they could trade, including New Jersey’s third this year and second next year they got for Nikita Gusev. In total they have five picks in the first three rounds this year and four in the first two rounds of 2021.

Would a second- and a later-round pick get the job done? The Golden Knights could trade one of their two second-rounders this year or one of their three next year, along with a later pick to acquire Vatanen.

It would take some cap reconfigurations to make it work. The Golden Knights currently project to have just under $150,000 of cap space at the Feb. 24 trade deadline, according to CapFriendly. The cap is calculated daily and that can change, but it will take some maneuvering to add a player as expensive as Vatanen.

But the Golden Knights need defense, and taking a look at potential free agents, Vatanan may be the best one available in a trade. He’s not the blockbuster deadline acquisition that Mark Stone was last year or even Tomas Tatar the year before that, but he’s the kind of player who complements a playoff roster.

If the Golden Knights make a move for a defenseman, Vatanen could be that move.

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