NHL Free Agency: Grading the Golden Knights’ signings

Despite being three games away from hoisting the Stanley Cup, the Las Vegas Golden Knights made some pretty big changes to their lineup in the offseason.

The Vegas Golden Knights walked into the offseason playing with house money. After a magical run to the Stanley Cup Final, the Knights had roughly $25 million to spend when the market opened on July 1st.

We should all be so lucky to have $25 million to spend in our lifetime.

A good team never rests on its laurels. The Golden Knights may have been three games away from raising the Cup, but there’s always room for improvement. Vegas’ biggest weakness in the Final was the disappearance of their top line. It’s possible that no amount of offseason retooling can fix William Karlsson and Jon Marchessault failing to show up in the Final. Some players simply disappear in the moment.

I’m not buying that with those two. I’m under the belief that more secondary scoring would have opened things up for the top line.

The Knights goal this offseason as to find that secondary scoring and improve their defensive depth. They also had big decisions to face with David Perron and James Neal.

Neal was allowed to walk by Vegas. The 30-year-old took a five-year deal with the Flames. It’s possible Vegas didn’t want to give that kind of term to a guy on the decline who doesn’t offer much more than goal scoring. Perron cashed in on a career season to return to St. Louis. There may have been nothing Vegas could do here. Perron simply loves St. Louis.

Despite two big losses, Vegas made a fairly big splash in the offseason.