[Geeoff]

Originally Posted by Cali Panthers Fan

I'll preface this post by saying "things can change", but this is the current projected lineup for the 2025/26 Vegas season, including their age that year in parentheses.

Forwards
Eichel (29)
Stone (33/LTIRetired-a very distinct possibility)
Hertl (32)
Karlsson (33)
Barbashev (30)
Roy (29)
Cotter (26)

Defense
Pietrangelo (36)
Whitecloud (29)
Hutton (32)

Goaltenders
ZERO...nobody on contract, not even Adin Hill.

A recent Athletic article ranked their prospect pool 23rd. That was when they still had their #1 prospect Edstrom in the mix, who they traded today, but they also lost Bjornfot to waivers, who was another top 10 prospect of theirs. Cormier and Brisson are the only notable prospects they have coming. They lost Miromanov and Pachal as depth pieces as well.

They traded a lot of picks away. Here's their draft capital to fill the cupboards with young players or to use in a trade:

2024-1st, 3rd, 6th, 7th x 2.
2025-2nd or 3rd (Calgary conditional pick), 4th, 5th, 6th

They will have roughly $37 million available for free agency, and that's about the only way they will be able to keep some current players or acquire new ones. We know that free agency can get very expensive very quickly.

Let's say they want to re-sign Theodore and Hanifin to have a competitive d-corps. It's not hard to imagine 6-7 million for each player respectively. Keeping Adin Hill? He currently makes about $5 million, so you would imagine he would be close to $6 million as well. Those 3 there takes you down to $17 million right away. They would still need another 5-7 forwards, 1-2 defensemen, and backup goalie. Maybe you can figure out some cheap options, but that's about 10 players that make an average of $1.7 million between them. Pretty hard to fill out a roster with quality NHLers in that salary range.

I'm going to go out on a limb now and say that not only will they miss the playoffs, their pick will be a top 10 pick that year.

I'm getting more excited for this 2026 pick!

Although, Vegas is a very aggressive team and plays at the very edge of the rules, so they could somehow continue to pull this off.