Golden Knights attempted to trade Jonathan Marchessault but failed!

The rumour hill has been spinning hard in Vegas as the Golden Knights are reportedly working hard at shedding salary from their overflowing salary cap. 

Earlier last week, it was first believed that the Golden Knights had “doubled down in recent days and weeks in an attempt to move” star forward Max Pacioretty in order to get out from under the $21 million still owed to him. However, owner Bill Foley quickly denied that rumour, stating that Patches was in Vegas to stay. 

Speculations shifted to other veteran players on the roster, as it is believed the Knights also had discussions involving veterans Marc-Andre Fleury and Jonathan Marchessault. 

And the latter almost got shipped out earlier this month! 

NHL insider Elliotte Friedman has reported over the weekend that the Golden Knights had held talks with the Nashville Predators in order to shop them Marchessault in an offseason transaction. The Sportsnet insider explained that the talks didn’t go anywhere, though we do not know if it was because of Vegas’ asking price in return for the forward. 

Marchessault carries a $5 million cap hit for the next four seasons and put up an impressive 22 goals and 47 points in 66 games for the Golden Knights last season. He’s just two years removed from a break out 75 point campaign during the Golden Knights’ inaugural season. Suffice it to say that he carries some significant value. 

The Predators are quite active on the trade market and even the free-agent one seeing that the team still has $12 million in salary cap space with only restricted free agent Luke Kunin left to re-sign. They easily have the money to take on contract similar to the one Marchessault carries and they are still in a position where their window for contention is open.

So what went wrong, we wonder…