2025 Vegas Golden Knights Offseason Guide: An Open Letter To Kelly McCrimmon

2025 Vegas Golden Knights Offseason Guide: An Open Letter To Kelly McCrimmon

The Vegas Golden Knights were eliminated from the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs by the Edmonton Oilers in the second round. This VGK team is clearly still very talented after winning the Pacific Division during the regular season, but is a few pieces away from getting back to the spot where they won the Stanley Cup. This is an open letter to Kelly McCrimmon. Follow the steps of this 2025 offseason guide, and this team becomes a hungry war machine ready to win another cup.

The first priority is getting Jack Eichel a new extension. Something that appears to be already in active discussions. I trust that you have this under control, so I’m going to keep it moving.

Let’s have some honest conversations now. This VGK team didn’t score during the last two postseason games. Yes, it’s hard to score in the playoffs, but it’s also a clear indication that the scoring winger position needs to be addressed. We love our centers and our D. The auxiliary offensive drive pieces on the wing just aren’t there.

You don’t need Jonathan Marchessault. You just need to replace him, and I’d argue that part hasn’t been done yet.

Let’s talk about some offseason pivot points to plan around.

Kelly McCrimmon Is Handling The VGK Farm System Just Fine

A: Nikolaj Ehlers? It’s time to win the recruiting battle. He’s been paying Winnipeg taxes for his entire career. How about paying Vegas taxes instead? Ehlers doesn’t appear to be overly loyal to the Jets and looks like he’s going to be testing the market. Who knows what rival teams will offer, but does he really want to spend the rest of his career on a rebuilding team just because they have the cap space to win the bid?

This move can happen and should happen. He’s a perfect fit on the second line with Tomas Hertl and Pavel Dorofeyev. Getting Ehlers to sign somewhere in the $7 million AAV range might get the job done when you factor in the taxes. Give him the no-move to seal it.

Trade Adin Hill to open up the cap space. You and I both know $6.25 for Hill is an overpay. A .906 SV% and .854% in the playoffs isn’t close to good enough based on the coaching staff and D in front of him. He has a Cup to his name, and there’s next to nobody available in free agency. Someone will take Hill and maybe even give you valuable pieces to flip in another deal. Carl Lindbom and Cameron Whitehead are talented prospects waiting. Give the net to Akira Schmid and let one of the young guys fill the backup role. I’d argue Schmid played the best high end hockey in the net for the team all season anyway…

B: Alex Tuch? Born in Buffalo, meant for Vegas.

Reilly Smith returned. Why can’t Tuch? I touched on this briefly, but Tuch is an impending free agent during the Summer of 2026. Why can’t this be a sign and trade sort of thing?

Need to work the back channels. Get permission to speak to the player by getting close enough on a trade. Convince him he’s going to rot in Buffalo. They had their chance to win with you. You know you can win here and even be a missing piece to the next Cup victory. Need him 50% retained with an extension that kicks in during 2026 when the cap spikes again anyway.

Getting Tuch is vital. Mark Stone can then play third line with Reilly Smith (who should be kept, but we’ll get there next) and William Karlsson. Keep his minutes shorter during the regular season so he’s good to go for playoffs. That creates a top line of Ivan Barbashev, Eichel, and Tuch. Plus the 4th line would be Brett Howden, Nic Roy, and Keegan Kolesar.

C: Seems pretty straight forward to me on the UFA stuff. Reilly Smith comes back. He clearly doesn’t want to leave again. Give him a deal where he can retire with the team. Long term, small AAV, no-move. Fixture for the third line and chemistry with Karlsson makes too much sense.

If you really want to keep Hill, Saad, and Olofsson can return, but it has to be for extremely cheap dollars. Otherwise, it doesn’t make sense. The RFA tag for Alex Holtz shouldn’t be a big worry. He comes back on a prove it deal and is given more of a chance to develop. Cole Schwint and Raphael Lavoie are pretty much dumpy depth pieces, so that’s up to you on that one.

D: Recognize you have leverage on Nic Hague. I’m sure you’re already aware of this, but you have seven D signed for next year. There’s obviously a line on where we’re willing to go here. If someone sends in an offer sheet at a big number, let them have the player, collect those draft picks in return to flip for Tuch, and use it as a future opportunity to offer sheet one of their guys. Go ahead, sign somewhere else so you can pay a tax rate that is way higher than if you stay with Vegas. He doesn’t provide enough offense to command a sizeable raise. Frankly, I’m not sure he’s even an upgrade over Kaedan Korczak beyond the length factor defending-wise.

Vegas enters this offseason with $9.6 million in cap space, and there’s no reason all of these things can be accomplished. The right scoring wingers can get this team back to hoisting the Cup. The pipedream option is David Pastrnak… and maybe that narrative can even be pushed if Brad Marchand wins a Cup with Florida…

Do your thing, Kelly. You have earned the trust of the fan base. I’ll just say that these targets are staring you in the face…

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