We’re down to less than 48 hours left in the Jake Guentzel sweepstakes and a familiar team once again is being mentioned as a top contender.
The Vegas Golden Knights, yes those Vegas Golden Knights who have made deals for Noah Hanifin and Anthony Mantha this week, might be one of the three finalists in the battle to acquire the talented Pittsburgh Penguins winger.
Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli, appearing on Sportsnet Central on Wednesday, said he believes there are at least five teams in the mix — he listed the Vancouver Canucks, Florida Panthers, Carolina Hurricanes and New York Rangers as the others.
But…
“Unless something changes, I believe Florida and the Vancouver Canucks have made a valiant effort and push but ultimately probably won’t have enough to get this deal done at least with what they’re comfortable in paying,” he said.
So how can the defending Cup champs have the cap space to add the pending unrestricted free agent with a $6-million cap hit?
Defenceman Alec Martinez was placed on IR on Wednesday and Seravalli said he could have a broken bone in his foot.
“I don’t know how long he’s going to be out but if he does end up going on LTIR, they could end up creating more cap space in Vegas,” he said. “That would be a really interesting situation. Rest assured, Vegas is going to be spending every dime and seemingly every asset they can to best position this team.”
Vegas forward Mark Stone is also on LTIR.
The Canucks, meanwhile, have been rumoured to be considering shipping out newly acquired Elias Lindholm to make a deal for Guentzel work.
While that would be a true blockbuster, it seems the chances of that have diminished over the past 24 hours.
