Golden Knights' Core in Danger as Elliotte Friedman Hints Multiple Key Players Could Be on the Move

The Vegas Golden Knights are reportedly pursuing Mitch Marner heavily in free agency this summer.

Initial reports suggested that the team could move a player like William Karlsson or Tomas Hertl to create the cap room required to sign Marner, but now Elliott Friedman believes neither of those players will be traded this summer.

However, this does not mean that Vegas is out on Marner.

Instead, it simply could be other players that are moved in order to create that cap space.

Friedman is now reporting that players including Nic Hague and Nicolas Roy could be on the move, and he even hinted that Alex Pietrangelo could be traded as well.

All three of these players have become important members of the Knights organization, but it would be hard to argue with moving any of them if it meant brining in a player of Marner's caliber.

Not to mention the fact that Pietrangelo is only getting older, and his 8.8 million dollar cap hit is starting to look a bit pricy for what he can provide at this point in his career, especially considering his health concerns.

The 35-year-old has missed nearly 40 games over the past three seasons, and his goal scoring ability has seemingly dried up with just 8 goals in the last two seasons combined.

He also has just 33 points in each of the last two seasons, tied for the second-lowest of his career only behind the shortened 2020-21 season where he recorded 23 points in 41 games.

Marner on the other hand is coming off the best season of his career in terms of production with 27 goals and 102 points in 81 games with the Leafs.

If he can bring that level of offense to Vegas, he would immediately become one of, if not the best player on the team.

The Knights have been known to make flashy moves with Kelly McCrimmon running the team, so be sure to stay tuned over the coming days as we could see the landscape of the NHL change very rapidly.