Golden Knights not afraid to cut loose popular players in pursuit of Stanley Cup

LAS VEGAS (AP) — An original Golden Knight, Jonathan Marchessault wanted to stay in Las Vegas, but he also understood as well as anyone that this organization will do what it believes will put the team in the best position to win in the near and long term.

Even if that means allowing one of the most popular players in the franchise's short history to leave, which is what happened when Marchessault signed with the Nashville Predators on July 1.

“There’s definitely no loyalty but, at the same time, you’re there to win," Marchessault said about the Golden Knights on the The Cam and Strick Podcast. "I don’t mind that mindset, personally.”

That's the dichotomy for those in the Golden Knights organization. Management will provide whatever tools are needed to compete for the Stanley Cup, but that also comes with the understanding that the leash can be short.

And that applies to players and coaches.

Marchessault won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP in 2023, and last season he scored 42 goals, just one off the club record. But with an eye on the future, the Golden Knights also knew Marchessault turns 34 this December.

There's a disagreement on the terms from each side, but general manager Kelly McCrimmon told The Associated Press that the Golden Knights wanted to keep Marchessault. As for providing a more detailed explanation, McCrimmon referred to earlier comments he made on SiriusXM NHL Network Radio that Nashville offered Marchessault a deal that was a year longer than what Vegas put on the table.

As unpopular a move as it was to let Marchessault go, that pales in comparison to when the Golden Knights chose Robin Lehner over Vegas favorite Marc-Andre Fleury in 2021 when they traded the Vezina Trophy winner to the Chicago Blackhawks. Fleury, now with Minnesota, still receives warm welcomes when he returns, and fans even chanted his name when the Wild visited April 12.

Lehner's time with the Golden Knights just ended after, according to Daily Faceoff on Thursday, a settlement was reached in which his $5 million salary will not count against the salary cap this season. He also likely will be paid $4.5 million in the final year of his deal, the report said. Lehner has been on long-term injured reserve the past two seasons after undergoing hip surgery.

The Golden Knights also aggressively pursue players, landing notable names such as Mark Stone, Alex Pietrangelo and Max Pacioretty over the years.

They also traded for Jack Eichel, embroiled at the time in a dispute with the Buffalo Sabres over a procedure never performed on an NHL player. Eichel wouldn't budge off his stance, and the Golden Knights not only orchestrated the deal in November 2021 but allowed him to undergo disk-replacement surgery.

“I kind of went from one polar opposite to the other,” Eichel said. "In Buffalo, they were always working towards the future. It was never about right now. I understand that situation. It was about getting draft picks, developing them and working towards, OK, what can we be like in a year, two years or whatever it might be for now.

“To be able to play in place where the goal and the standard every season is to be the last team, it's the best. It's what you want as a player. We have the utmost confidence in management and ownership to make our team as good as it possibly can every year to try to win the ultimate goal.”

The Golden Knights' way has been an unqualified success.

They reached the Stanley Cup Final in their first year in 2018 and have made the playoffs every season except one. Vegas fulfilled owner Bill Foley's vision of winning the Cup in its sixth year.

The Golden Knights have attracted their share of detractors along the way, many fans of other teams not happy with an organization that has had one of the strongest expansion runs in sports. Vegas' use of LTIR also has prompted claims of salary-cap manipulation, allowing the club to make daring moves at the trade deadline.

Even many Golden Knights fans have been turned off by the cutthroat nature of the organization. But the club remains enormously popular as evident by the numerous team license plates throughout the Las Vegas area and the electric atmosphere at T-Mobile Arena.

Winning, of course, helps, and that's the bottom-line consideration for the organization.

It's a major reason coach Bruce Cassidy was interested in Vegas after the Boston Bruins fired him in June 2022. He's already the third coach in Golden Knights history, and Cassidy certainly bought time by winning a championship in his first season.

But he also knows patience can be thin and memories short.

“I'd rather be in that position than a team that's the opposite or somewhere down the road from that,” Cassidy said. "You might have a little less scrutiny or pressure or whatever words you want to use, but I like to win. I enjoyed the feeling of winning the Stanley Cup, and I'd take the pressure that goes along with it any day to do it all over again.”

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Freelance writer W.G. Ramirez contributed to this report.

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

Mark Anderson, The Associated Press