Three teams linked to Pacioretty in trade talks

Yesterday afternoon TSN's Frank Seravalli reported that the Vegas Golden Knights have “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. It's worth noting that Pacioretty's contract has a limited no-trade clause and still has three years remaining with a $7 million per season salary cap hit.

Having said all that, Pacioretty is still a valuable player and there should be at least a few times with trade interest. After all, the 32 year old forward put up 32 goals and 66 points in 71 games last season. 

In his latest column for NBC Sports, Adam Gretz reports that the Nashville Predators, New Jersey Devils and Florida Panthers are all likely destinations. These are the only three teams in the NHL with the cap space to acquire Pacioretty, while simultaneously also having the need for a top six forward.

Gretz on the Preds:

The Predators love to swing for the fences in trades, and they still have more than $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 that contract and they are still in a position where their window for contention is open.

Their offense was already weak and saw close to 70 goals leave town this offseason with no proven impact players coming back to replace it. Pacioretty would help fix that and maybe even help improve what has been the league’s worst power play over the past two seasons.

Gretz on the Devils:

They are obviously banking heavily on Nico Hischier and Jack Hughes to be stars, but they could still use another proven scorer or two. There is also the fact that both Nikita Gusev and Kyle Palmieri are unrestricted free agents after this season and there is no guarantee they will be back. Pacioretty would give them a proven scorer that is still under contract for the next two years. It also would not prohibit them from re-signing one of the other two forwards. It would also be kind of funny to see Pacioretty be reunited with P.K. Subban in New Jersey just a couple of years after each of them was traded out of Montreal.

Gretz on the Panthers:

While their offense has been very good the past two years, they did lose a lot this offseason with Evgenii Dadonov and Mike Hoffman (their top-two goal scorers from a season ago) leaving in free agency.

This is a team that is clearly determined to make the playoffs, and they still have close to $8.5 million in salary cap space to play with.

Thoughts, Vegas fans?