While that was still good enough for second on the team in scoring, Karlsson is in a much different place when heading into negotiations. Now it's official, now it's out there, and now it's done. His previous high for goals had been just nine in a full season, but a move to Vegas has turned him into a much more effective offensive player. Fox Sports’ Jon Rosen, While there has been talk that the Calgary Flames might be ready to move on from defenseman.

After putting up 25 points in 81 games in 2016-17, the Blue Jackets reached a deal with Vegas for them to take Karlsson instead of winger Josh Anderson or goalie Joonas Korpisalo in the Expansion Draft. Does Matthews stay in the top five? He wound up scoring a whopping 43 goals which ranked third overall in the league while adding 35 assists while becoming their top line pivot.

The Golden Knights will have to find a way to unload some cap room as they are over the new $81.5MM cap, however for a period during the offseason, a team can exceed the cap by 10 percent, allowing them to go to $89.65MM if they need to.

Although he cooled off a little bit in the Stanley Cup Final, Karlsson also had a productive postseason, notching seven goals and eight assists in 20 games which certainly helped to bolster his case and helped him earn a $4.25MM raise in salary compared to what he made last season. All rights reserved. He noted that both sides came into the season looking for clarity and that they will re-assess the situation over the summer. Karlsson, who could have become an unrestricted free-agent had he opted to force arbitration and take a one-year deal, had made it clear that he has wanted to remain in Vegas, where he loves it. If Karlsson went to arbitration the process would only be able to award him a one-year contract, taking him to unrestricted free agency in the summer of 2020. UFA seasons usually cost more to buy out in long-term deals, meaning any multi-year contract will be an expensive addition to the Vegas salary structure. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site.

In the meantime though, CapFriendly estimates that the signing puts the Knights $1.5MM over the off-season salary cap with several restricted free agents still in need of contracts. William Karlsson signed a 8 year / $47,200,000 contract with the Vegas Golden Knights, including a $2,000,000 signing bonus, $47,200,000 guaranteed, and an annual average salary of $5,900,000.

In the poll below we’ve listed many options and are asking you to vote for your top group by selecting 10 names. August 2, 2018 at 9:12 am CDT | by Gavin Lee 2 Comments. He made his senior Elitserien debut with HV71.