The Vegas Golden Knights are doing some fancy financial footwork as they head into the 4 Nations Face-Off break, making a series of moves to squeeze every penny out of their salary cap space.
It’s all about making the most of their long-term injured reserve options, and they’re getting pretty creative with it.
The Knights started by bringing up Alexander Holtz and goalie Akira Schmid, then sent Raphael Lavoie back down. That left them with just $135,000 under the cap – barely enough to buy a nice house in most cities.
Then came the big move: they put their star center William Karlsson on long-term injured reserve and called up Jonas Rondbjerg. It’s the kind of move that would’ve been impossible without putting Karlsson on the shelf.
By playing this financial chess game, Vegas has managed to free up $5.133 million in cap space. But there’s a catch – they’ll be over the limit once Karlsson’s healthy again.
Speaking of Karlsson, losing the 32-year-old center is a tough break for the Knights. He’s been sidelined since January 20, when he got hurt against the St. Louis Blues. Now he’ll be out until at least February 24.
This season hasn’t been Karlsson’s best for scoring – he’s only got 18 points in 38 games and hadn’t scored in seven straight before getting hurt. Since New Year’s, he’s managed just one assist in 10 games.
But numbers don’t tell the whole story.
Karlsson’s been dominating in the faceoff circle, winning an impressive 58.9% of his draws – good enough for fifth-best among all NHL centers. He’s also been putting pucks on net with 89 shots and sits at a solid plus-seven rating.
Filling his skates won’t be easy. The Knights are turning to Holtz and Rondbjerg to help pick up the slack. Holtz has been the more productive of the two, scoring 11 points in 49 games, while Rondbjerg is still looking for his first point after 10 games.
They’ll both get their chances on the left wing, especially with the team already missing Cole Schwindt, Tanner Pearson, and Lavoie.
