There are solely 4 gamers remaining on the Vegas Golden Knights roster from their inaugural season within the NHL, they usually made certain that one among them goes to stay with the staff for the foreseeable future.
The Golden Knights introduced that they’ve signed defenseman Shea Theodore to a seven-year contract extension that can pay him $7.425 million per season.
It’s a vital contract for a few causes.
Theodore is one among Vegas’ greatest gamers and one among its prime defensemen. He has been with the group from day one and was a part of the preliminary enlargement draft course of, coming over from the Anaheim Geese.
The defenseman instantly made an affect on Vegas’ protection and helped the staff attain the Stanley Cup Remaining in its first season because it develop into an instantaneous contender. Through the staff’s Stanley Cup-winning season in 2023 he performed over 20 minutes per sport within the playoffs on the staff’s prime protection pairing, scoring one purpose with 12 assists in the course of the playoffs.
Together with enjoying a gradual defensive sport, Theodore can be one of the crucial productive defensemen within the NHL. Since becoming a member of Vegas at first of the 2017-18 season his 296 factors are sixteenth within the NHL amongst defensemen, whereas his 0.66 level per sport common is fifteenth within the NHL amongst that group.
His extension additionally considerably weakens this summer time’s potential free-agent class as Theodore was more likely to be one of many prime defenders out there had he gone to the open market.
Vegas has by no means been afraid to spend to the higher limits of the NHL wage cap and can all the time signal huge contracts and fear concerning the potential ramifications later. That is the most recent instance of that they usually now have their top-three defenders locked into long-term offers with Theodore, Noah Hanifin and Alex Pietrangelo all signed for greater than $7 million per season.
Together with Theodore, William Karlsson, Brayden McNabb and Zach Whitecloud are the remaining gamers from Vegas’ preliminary 2017-18 roster.