NHL trade rumors: Vegas Golden Knights might take on bad contracts in exchange for draft picks

There’s a lot going on with the Vegas Golden Knights ahead of the NHL Expansion Draft on June 21, and the hot rumor today is that they might be taking on some bad contracts in return for assets.

It makes sense if you are Golden Knights general manager George McPhee. It’s unlikely that Las Vegas will reach the salary cap — they are only required to hit $43.8 million in salary through the expansion draft — so there will be room to play with. Might as well use that room to extract assets, such as a first round pick, from other teams.

The Flyers corner of Twitter exploded after this news with everybody thinking the same thought out loud: could this rumor be about the Flyers? Maybe they’re trying to move Andrew MacDonald?

And the answer is almost certainly no. The No. 2 overall pick is just too valuable to move, and it’s definitely not worth it just to get rid of a bad contract like that of MacDonald. It’s not even close to worth it.

For one, the Flyers are not in dire straits with regards to their salary cap entering next season. MacDonald’s deal doesn’t change that.

If any of the young defensemen — Travis Sanheim, Samuel Morin, Phillippe Myers, etc. — make the team, they will be playing on cheap entry-level deals. That should mitigate nearly all salary cap concerns, especially since Shayne Gostisbehere is the only important free agent the Flyers need to sign this summer.

Look, AMac is indeed in the way on this team. His presence drags down players like Ivan Provorov on the ice and it could theoretically block a young talent from making the NHL roster in camp this fall or next. But the solution to that problem doesn’t have to be a trade, and it certainly doesn’t have to be a trade that also loses us the No. 2 overall pick.

All the Flyers need to do to fix the AMac problem is ... stop playing him. Stop putting him on the top pairing with Ivan Provorov. If he is the sixth best defenseman in camp this fall and some of the AHL kids outplay him, put him on a bus to Allentown. It’s a self-inflicted problem at this point, and drastic measures are not needed to solve it.

The NHL Expansion Draft process, explained