Max Pacioretty Finishes Off The Trade By Signing With Vegas For 4-Years At $7M AAV
By now I think there have been at least 3 or 4 blogs on the Max Pacioretty trade up on the blog so there’s no need to talk about the actual trade anymore. But the trade was contingent (SAT word) on Max Pacioretty signing an extension in Vegas with his current contract running up on July 1, 2019. It would be Peter Chiarelli levels of stupid for them to make a 3-asset move just for a 1-year rental of Max Pacioretty. So as soon as the trade call was made, so were the negotiation calls. And about 12 hours later, Max Pacioretty now has a new contract and he’ll be rippin’ it up in Vegas for the next 4 years. Tough life. I’m not entirely sure if he’s married with kids or not yet. He seems like a family man. But if he’s not? Holy shit. This is like 29-year old finding out that he gets to go to college.
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So as it stands right now, $7M will make Max Pacioretty the highest paid player on the Golden Knights along with Marc-Andre Fleury who will also start making $7 million next year. Patches is pretty similar to a guy like James van Riemsdyk in the sense that they were worth way more than their previous contract. He was getting just over $4 mil a year up until now and for a guy who can put up 30/30, that’s some Amazon Prime Day deal type shit. So when guys like finally get to the end of their Bob’s Discount Furniture contract, they finally get rewarded with the money that they probably should have been making in the first place. Both of them are now making $7 million per year (obviously with Pacioretty’s kicking in after this year). It seems like an overpayment at first but the only reason it seems like that is just because they were getting so underpaid before. So I think the 4-year term here for Vegas is very good and I think the $7 million value for Vegas is very good as well. Solid contract all around. And now here’s the biggest question–what does this mean for Vegas in regards to Erik Karlsson.
Here’s what Vegas is working with right now. They have some fuck you money to play around with this season but next year when Pacioretty and Fleury’s new contracts both kick in, they’ll start to be a little strapped. Not quite Detroit cap hell strapped. But they’ll finally need to start actually paying attention to the salary cap to make sure they don’t run themselves into any trouble. Right now they can just ball out with reckless abandon, next year George McPhee actually has to do some work.
Now I’m not a mathematician or anything but I don’t think it’s impossible for the Vegas Golden Knights to still move enough money around to still bring in Erik Karlsson and the ~$11M that he’ll most likely be signing for. It sure as shit won’t be easy but there are a few guys who Vegas could part with that would open up that cap space for Karlsson. But the biggest factor here in signing Erik Karlsson would be the other Karlsson; William. William Karlsson signed a 1-year deal this summer for $5.25. This was a “show me what you got” contract. If William Karlsson is able to keep up the numbers that he put up last year with Vegas, well then he’s looking to become an extremely rich individual. He could potentially be an $8-10 guy if he can consistently put up 70-80 points. But if last year was just some sort of “Rookie of the Year” type of season for William Karlsson and he loses all of his powers this year? Well then Vegas won’t have to worry about keeping enough money in the bank for a massive extension for him. So that’s pretty much that. If the Vegas Golden Knights want to sign Erik Karlsson, then William Karlsson can’t be good anymore. And if William Karlsson is actually the player he was last season? Well then I guess you can catch Erik Karlsson playing for Dallas next season. And that, my friends, is how you turn a blog on Max Pacioretty into another blog about Erik Karlsson.