The first day of the 2021-22 NHL season has been a busy one for the Vegas Golden Knights. They started the morning by announcing that they had re-signed defenseman Alec Martinez. Martinez scored 32 points in 53 games this past season and is a two-time Stanley Cup champion. His new deal will pay him $5.25 million per season for three years.
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The Golden Knights were far from done making moves. After trading Vezina Trophy-winner Marc-Andre Fleury to the Chicago Blackhawks yesterday, they went and signed Laurent Brossoit. The 28-year-old signed a deal that will pay him $4.6 million over the course of two years.
Golden Knights wheeling and dealing
While the early signings were big moves, the Golden Knights largest splash of the day may have come when they traded Nick Holden and a 2022 3rd round pick to the Ottawa Senators for forward Evgenii Dadonov. While he managed just 20 points in 55 games last season with the Senators, before that he had three consecutive seasons with 25 goals or more.
Dadonov has a cap hit of $5 million and should slot into the Golden Knights middle-six as a winger that can play either side. The Golden Knights will hope that he can find some of that old mojo that he had with the Panthers and that much of his struggles last season were due to his environment.
Depth signings
The Golden Knights also signed forward Sven Baertschi and re-signed Gage Quinney today. Both of these players are depth pieces that should add to the strength of the organization as a whole as there is no guarantee that they will be full-time NHL players.
Keep checking back for more news as this article will be updated as the day goes along.