Rumor: Golden Knights sign Martinez, but must now make another move.

The Las Vegas Golden Knights have reportedly pulled off a very nice deal for themselves, but if it is indeed the case it will now mean that the team must make another move in order to become cap compliant prior to the start of the 2021 - 2022 National Hockey League regular season.

First, the signing. According to NHL insider Frank Seravalli, the Golden Knights have signed veteran defenseman Alec Martinez to a 3 year deal worth $15 million in total. That breaks down to an average annual value and cap hit of $5 million per season, a number that I think will make fans happy given that Martinez likely could have fetched something similar or possibly even more on the open market come Wednesday.

Martinez has been an incredibly valuable piece on the blue line for the Golden Knights and although giving him 3 years of term at 34 years of age may be something of a risk, there's no doubting the level of performance he has delivered for the Golden Knights since joining the franchise. In his most recent campaign Martinez chewed up a healthy 22:34 minutes of ice time on average over 53 regular season games and he did so while collecting 9 goals and 23 assists for 32 points. He had 12 penalty minutes on the season and finished with a very respectable plus minus rating of +26.

One of the most interesting aspects of this move from the Golden Knights however is the fact that it will now neccesitate another move on the part of the franchise in order to clear cap space, because they now have none. Put aside the fact that both Mattias Janmark and Tomas Nosek are both pending unrestricted free agents and will likely need to be signed in the next 48 hours if the Golden Knights wish to retain either player, but the Golden Knights also have recently acquired forward Nolan Patrick that will be in need a new deal as a restricted free agent in the offseason.

There have been rumblings already this offseason that both Robin Lehner and Marc Andre Fleury have been linked to trade deals with different organizations, so perhaps a shift in goal is how the Golden Knights plan to save dollars this summer.