Why the Golden Knights traded Pavel Dorofeyev — and why replacing him won’t be easy

The Vegas Golden Knights certainly would’ve preferred not to trade Pavel Dorofeyev to the New York Rangers on Friday. Sending away their best pure shooter, who led the team in goals over the past two seasons, further diminished what was already arguably the team’s biggest weakness: finishing talent.

But based on the salary-cap situation, Vegas didn’t have much of a choice.

As has become common, the Golden Knights entered the offseason in a severe salary-cap crunch. They were always going to have to trade a major piece (or two) this summer, and on Friday, general manager Kelly McCrimmon decided Dorofeyev was the choice.

Vegas dealt Dorofeyev to the Rangers for a first-round pick on Friday, which Vegas then traded down from twice and eventually selected Finnish defenseman Juho Piiparinen. The Golden Knights also received a third-round pick and a first-round pick in 2028.

Shortly after the trade, the Rangers signed Dorofeyev to a massive seven-year extension worth $11 million per year. That deal is exactly why the Golden Knights were forced to trade their homegrown sharp-shooter.

Vegas already has $91.45 million in cap space allocated to the 2026-27 season, with a roster of only 10 forwards, four defensemen and two goaltenders. That leaves the team with only $12.55 million in space to fill out the remaining four spots, and that’s not accounting for the three extras most teams typically roster.

Dorofeyev would’ve accounted for nearly all of Vegas’ remaining cap space, which is a problem considering the team still has to sign pending unrestricted free agent defenseman Rasmus Andersson, who is also due a hefty raise. Extending Andersson is a must, considering the Golden Knights traded Zach Whitecloud, defensive prospect Abram Wiebe, a first-round pick in 2027 and a second-round pick in 2028 to the Calgary Flames to acquire him in January.

A long-term extension for Andersson is likely to be announced in the near future, and is expected to be in the range of $7.5 million to $9 million per season. That means that even after sending Dorofeyev out, Vegas is still incredibly tight to the cap. Even if Andersson’s extension comes in on the low range, it would leave the Golden Knights with only $5 million in cap space while still in need of two more forwards and another defenseman to fill out the minimum 20-man roster.

As for the trade itself, Vegas did reasonably well considering the circumstances. It acquired two high-value draft picks, which are essentially just trade pieces for a team like the Golden Knights, but that’s important considering they had traded their 2026 and 2027 first-round picks to Calgary. Vegas is almost certainly not done making trades this summer, and now has more pieces to work with.

The extension for Dorofeyev was pricey. Under the quickly rising salary cap, $11 million per year isn’t what it used to be, but it’s still a lot for a player who hasn’t shown the ability to drive offense at even strength. Dorofeyev is a phenomenal shooter and has good hockey sense away from the puck. His deceptive release regularly fools goaltenders, and he picks corners on weak-side chances that make his shots nearly impossible to stop.

However, Dorofeyev needs to be paired with an elite playmaker in order for his skills to shine. He isn’t the strongest skater, and hasn’t created his own offense with the puck on his stick with any regularity, especially at five-on-five. There’s a chance he continues scoring at his 30-plus goal clip over the next seven years in New York. In that case, he will be well worth the contract. But there’s also a chance Dorofeyev’s lofty numbers in Vegas were as much a product of the Golden Knights’ plethora of skilled passers as they were his own scoring talent.

That is to say, if the Golden Knights were looking to save a major chunk of cap space while sacrificing the least amount of total impact in all three zones, Dorofeyev may have been the best choice. And unlike the other players Vegas could trade to shed salary, such as Tomas Hertl or Adin Hill, Dorofeyev’s value is pointing upward at the moment, since he is coming off an excellent postseason, so the team was able to get substantial value back.

From a purely value perspective, this move doesn’t look too bad for the Golden Knights. How it will play out on the ice is an entirely different subject, because as one-dimensional as Dorofeyev’s game is, it’s a pretty important dimension, and one that Vegas doesn’t have much of.

All of the Golden Knights’ top forwards – Jack Eichel, Mitch Marner, Mark Stone, William Karlsson and Hertl – are pass-first players. At times over the last several seasons, Vegas has looked like a team trying to pass the puck into the net, searching for a perfect feed that will result in a backdoor tap-in.

Multiple head coaches have urged the team to have more of a shot mentality. For stretches, this cast of playmakers has filled the net with pucks. That was the case for the first three rounds of the playoffs this year. For other stretches, the team has struggled to score to a baffling degree, considering how much offensive talent is on the roster.

For two straight years, the Golden Knights’ season ended in a shutout loss.

Losing the 2023 Conn Smythe Trophy winner, Johanthan Marchessault, to free agency hurt in that regard. He was a pure scorer who regularly delivered in the biggest moments. While it may have been savvy to avoid the contract that Nashville eventually signed Marchessault to, it sapped some scoring punch from the team.

While he’s obviously a much younger player, losing Dorofeyev has a similar feel. The Golden Knights seem to have extracted decent value, but they still need someone to shoot the puck in 2026-27.

There’s an argument that most of Dorofeyev’s goals were set on a tee for him, thanks to Vegas’ exceptional passing. While that’s true, it still takes shooting talent to finish those opportunities at the rate in which he did, and there isn’t a clear replacement on the roster. Dorofeyev led Vegas with 72 goals over the last two seasons. The next-closest player is Hertl, with 56, and there are signs his goal-scoring prowess could be on the decline. Brett Howden exploded for 14 goals in the playoffs, but he had only 12 in the regular season and has only reached double digits in goals twice in his career.

Vegas doesn’t have much goal-scoring coming up through its pipeline. The organization’s top prospect, 2024 first-round pick Trevor Connelly, is an excellent player with speed, but is more of a playmaker than a scorer. He had 14 goals and 35 assists in 43 games as a rookie with the AHL’s Henderson Silver Knights last season.

There are goal scorers on the trade market, headlined by Detroit’s Dylan Larkin. The 29-year-old center has scored at least 30 goals in five straight seasons, and would strengthen Vegas’ already strong center group. He also carries an $8.7 million cap hit, so the Golden Knights would need to clear even more cap space for him to become an option.

Dallas’ Jason Robertson, who is also a restricted free agent due for a big payday, is probably the best scorer potentially available. He scored 45 goals this season, and it was the third time in only seven seasons that he’s crossed the 40-goal threshold. There are also reports that he turned down a contract worth $15 million per year from Seattle, so he may be well outside of Vegas’ price range.

The free-agent class doesn’t offer much high-end scoring. Longtime Islander Anders Lee is a big, power forward with 308 career NHL goals, but he turns 36 this week. The other top forward options, such as Mats Zuccarello and Boone Jenner, are more passers than shooters.

Friday’s trade was yet another difficult decision for an organization that has forced itself into many by the way it operates. It’s easy to see the logic behind the Golden Knights’ decision to trade their top scorer, but it won’t be easy to replace his production.