Huge trade brewing between Pittsburgh and Vegas in hopes of replacing Mark Stone

The latest update on Vegas Golden Knights Mark Stone indicated that the captain is week-to-week with an upper-body injury, but thankfully, the ailment is not related to his back.

However, the Golden Knights will still be left with a huge void up front, and Darren Dreger confirmed that Vegas will go hunting on the trade market for some help to replace Stone during his absence. This is how Dreger explained it on last night’s edition of Insider Trading on TSN:

“One of Kelly McCrimmon’s – the general manager of the Vegas Golden Knights – strengths is his ability to juggle through adversity. And it’s unfortunately become all too common for Mark Stone to miss big chunks of the second half, which appears to be the case. So, they’re going to have to make that medical determination March 8 or around the trade deadline. But know this; any cap space will be utilized by the Golden Knights. But we should make it clear, I remember having a conversation with McCrimmon at the GM meetings last year and he talked about Mark Stone being the heart and soul. This leaves an enormous hole. But they’ll do everything they can to backfill on the trade front.”

The idea that McCrimmon will turn to the market prompted insider Frank Seravalli to suggest a move with the Pittsburgh Penguins. He wonders if the Golden Knights could target Jake Guentzel or if a reunion with Reilly Smith could be in the cards. It was recently reported that Smith isn’t happy in Pittsburgh and would love to be moved, more so if it were to land back in Sin City.

Guentzel is currently on the Penguins’ long-term injured reserve, potentially ruling him out beyond March 8, but he might have just played his last game with the team. He is a pending unrestricted free agent carrying a cap hit of $6 million.

Let’s say Vegas were to go after him and get Stone back for the postseason, the captain doesn’t count against the cap after that in the sense that he can be replaced on the cap at the trade deadline.

Guentzel has 22 goals and 52 points in 50 games this season and could be what Vegas wants to gamble on. However, it will have to keep in mind that there is a possibility that teams looking to acquire Guentzel might call about extending him before they make their trade offers to the Penguins.

It will be interesting to see what the Golden Knights choose to do with two weeks to go prior to the trade deadline.

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