It's no secret that the announced 2019-20 salary cap of $81.5 million was horrible news for George McPhee and the Vegas Golden Knights. They are up against the cap, even at the original projection of $83 million and now have $1.5 million less to work with. Despite their eventual cap issues, they were able to make progress on a very important roster move over the past couple days.


William Karlsson has been a crucial part of the team since their inception (USA Today Sports)

Both mega-insiders Pierre LeBrun and Bob McKenzie previously reported that a Karlsson extension was close to being done and in typical fashion, they were correct. With this new deal, Karlsson can finally go out and buy a nice home over at one of the TPC golf courses.

Pierre LeBrun on Twitter

Hearing that William Karlsson's extension, once signed this week, will be 8-year max term, which was really important to him. Loves it in Vegas.

Eight years keeps those beautiful gold locks in Vegas for a very long time, one less than superstar Mark Stone. Although the Golden Knights don't have much cap to throw around, bringing back Karlsson was priority number one and rightfully so. Teams are hesitant to give out much term, but when you don't have the cash to give in AAV, you can't avoid the long-term commitment a player like Karlsson was looking for.

Bob McKenzie on Twitter

AAV will be a shade under $6M. https://t.co/TJCQjgrUzH

Kevin Hayes got a much better deal from the Flyers, but they had the money to swing and Karlsson clearly wanted to stay in Vegas. Karlsson's deal carries an average annual value of $5.9 million per season over those eight years. He is giving the team a discount in AAV in return for security, but how big of a hit is it when he gets to lock in that much cheddar over that many years? Wild Bill won't be hurting for money any time soon. The scary part now is waiting to see who the casualties are. Colin Miller, Cody Eakin, Erik Haula, and/or Gusev are now essentially guaranteed to be gone via trade. I broke it down in detail on the Twitter.

Jeff Paul (VGK) on Twitter

@Erik_Simonis @JesseGranger_ @TheAthleticNHL @Wptseuss $49.03 million spent on forwards right now. $54.93 million with Karlsson at $5.9 mil/year. $21.11 million on D without Schuldt/Engelland/call-ups. $7 million on 🌸. =$83.04 million. Already $1.54 million over with tons of work to do for the #VegasBorn boys. It's significant.

Stay tuned all summer for updates through Developmental Camp (June 25th) and the start of Free Agency.
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