The Vegas Golden Knights swept the two-game season series with the NHL-leading Tampa Bay Lightning, signed several players -- including veteran defenseman Deryk Engelland -- to extensions and have made it clear that they won't be sellers at the trade deadline.
NHL Roundtable: What should the Golden Knights do next?
Greg Wyshynski, senior NHL writer: Trade James Neal, if the price is right.
Yes, I know he scored his 19th goal on Thursday night in yet another statement win for the Golden Knights, this time on the road against the Eastern Conference-leading Tampa Bay Lightning. Yes, I know that his partnership with fellow veteran David Perron has established a potent second scoring line for the Knights.
But here are some other things I know about James Neal: He'll turn 31 in September. He makes $5 million against the cap, and there's no reason to believe he'll be taking a pay cut -- much like there's no reason to believe he'll be looking for anything less than the six years he had on his last contract.
If no one wants to offer the Golden Knights fair value for Neal at the trade deadline, they should hang on to him. But if another team sees Neal as a final piece to its puzzle and is willing to ante up a first-rounder or a collection of picks for his services, Vegas GM George McPhee would be hard-pressed not to make that deal. Especially when you consider the mantra that Golden Knights coach Gerard Gallant has preached all season: There are no stars on this team, and the next man up will always be ready to make an impact.
Frankly, we don't know how many pending unrestricted free agents are looking to remain with Vegas beyond this season -- although, given how things have gone and how great the market has been, one assumes they'd all want to stay. But in the case of Neal, as great as he's been, this is an asset McPhee could leverage into help for the future.
It's hard to think about the future when the present is this unprecedented and remarkable, but someone has to.
Emily Kaplan, national NHL reporter: Lock in William Karlsson! Look, McPhee is in a precarious situation. His team has totally overachieved, forcing him to improvise. McPhee's plan to build a playoff contender the right way -- slowly, and through acquiring draft picks -- is no longer relevant. The Golden Knights, inexplicably, are ready to win now. They may not be built to sustain this success and win two or three years from now. That's why McPhee can't totally ditch his agenda. He can make exceptions, however, and reward those who have played well and project well for the future. Karlsson is one of those players.
The young Swede -- acquired from the Columbus Blue Jackets in the expansion draft last June -- has been terrific for Vegas. With 24 goals in his first 44 games, he has been an electric complement to Jonathan Marchessault on the Golden Knights' most potent scoring line. Given that Marchessault is sticking around for the foreseeable future, thanks to his well-deserved six-year extension, it makes sense to make to make Karlsson the second cornerstone. Did I mention that he just turned 25?
As the Blue Jackets search for their own secondary scoring, they may lament the one who got away. Columbus just couldn't figure Karlsson into its equation soon enough. In Vegas, Karlsson is averaging 18-plus minutes a night. He averaged 13:23 a night last season. But just like so many players on this expansion team, Karlsson needed a fresh start. And as Vegas resets for its future, it shouldn't consider a future without Karlsson.
Chris Peters, NHL Insider: This is so ridiculously tricky for McPhee. As a builder, he still very much needs to be in asset-collection mode. As good of a job as he did in drafting and assembling this team, the franchise still has a long way to go before it's on solid footing for the long term. So how does he go about collecting assets -- draft picks, prospects or roster players -- while not significantly hindering this team's chances going forward?
I would have complete faith in McPhee to make the cold, necessary decisions here, but I also think he knows that he owes it to these players to give them a chance now. Most of them came to Vegas via de facto rejection, not by choice. Despite that, the Golden Knights have come together and made a commitment to do everything that is necessary to put themselves in the position they're in now. As much as trading Neal, as Greg suggests, is the right long-term business decision, Vegas can't make that move without getting someone in return who can help now. And since Neal is most likely a rental acquisition, that piece isn't coming.
Further complicating the issue is that the Golden Knights still have a farm system to build. They still don't have enough players to fill out their AHL roster and a number of their junior-aged players won't be heading up for a while, either. If Vegas does end up making moves, they will probably be incremental ones, such as collecting more draft picks to potentially package to move up or use in the draft. The Golden Knights will have one first-round pick in this year's draft, another second-round selection, no picks in the third round and just five picks in Rounds 4 through 6, per CapFriendly.com. McPhee will have to get creative if he doesn't want to move Neal or Perron, each of whom were tailor-made for deadline deals before the Knights were good.
As an aside, I'd wait to re-sign Karlsson until after seeing how the rest of his season plays out and how he performs in the playoffs -- just to give more evaluation time, because this has been an unprecedented performance from him. The same goes for Colin Miller and then Shea Theodore, who won't have arbitration rights yet. Basically, it's going to be an especially busy summer (again) for McPhee.