Hanifin signing was a big deal for the Vegas Golden Knights – but crucial decisions lie ahead

The Vegas Golden Knights are spending big money once again, and are going to have to make some choices on personnel in the near future.

On Thursday, the team signed defenseman Noah Hanifin to an eight-year contract extension that will kick in next season, with a $7.35 million AAV. The Golden Knights acquired him right before the trade deadline from the Calgary Flames, in a deal that ended up being a steal for Vegas, as they are only paying 25% of his remaining salary.

However, the deal looks to put the Golden Knights in a salary cap pickle. As it stands, Vegas has 37 standard player contracts signed through next season, but are projected to have just under $1.5 million in cap space, according to CapFriendly.

The question is, what will general manager Kelly McCrimmon do in order to make some room to field a team before next season?

On Friday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk discuss Hanifin’s contract, and what could be on the horizon for the Golden Knights’ brass.

Frank Seravalli: I think the value is spot-on. I think the Calgary Flames extended an offer of eight years at $7.5 million. Some would say…he took a slight discount in Vegas, but when you actually size up the net of the deal, based on Nevada being a no income tax state, what you’re talking about here is Noah Hanifin…he’s going to get an additional $6 million, based off what he would’ve earned in Calgary.

They’re basically taking the $5.2 million that’s coming off the books from Alec Martinez, and sliding that to Hanifin. Plus, half of the salary cap increase that’s coming this summer, that’s $4.3 million…and you still got another $2 million increase to play with. I don’t if that gets you Jonathan Marchessault re-signed. With him turning 34 next season, maybe, after this playoff run, they just decide to shake hands and say goodbye to another Golden Misfit like they did with Reilly Smith last summer.

You can’t afford to keep everyone…maybe they’ve got something up their sleeve.

Tyler Yaremchuk: I don’t see a piece on that team that they are looking to move on from magically…it does feel like they chose Hanifin over Marchessault.

You can watch the full segment, and the entire episode here…