The Vegas Golden Knights are making moves. On Tuesday, they announced their second trade in as many days, sending defenseman Kaedan Korczak to the Pittsburgh Penguins in exchange for defenseman Parker Wotherspoon.
The Golden Knights are only on the hook for paying Wotherspoon $500,000, as the Penguins are retaining 50% of his contract. They also gained another $2,750,000 in salary cap relief by dumping the 25-year-old Korczak, whose four-year, $3,250,000 contract extension had not yet kicked in.
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The Golden Knights drafted Korczak with the 41st overall pick in 2019. He’d taken the steps towards becoming an every-night NHLer, and he got his chance last year without Alex Pietrangelo in the lineup. However, Korczak never lived up to the contract extension he signed last July, and he was inconsistent in a sheltered role. His struggles continued in the postseason, and Korczak eventually lost his roster spot to Dylan Coghlan.
Parker Wotherspoon is 28 years old and is coming off a career year in which he scored 3 goals and 30 points in 82 games. He isn’t the biggest player, and he’ll be the runt of the litter on the Vegas blueline. However, Wotherspoon is one tough customer, as he was second among all Penguins players in hits with 162. He’s a smooth-skater who is dangerous in transition, so he’ll fit right in with the other Golden Knights defensemen.
Acquiring Wotherspoon, a left-shot defenseman, almost certainly marks the end of Jeremy Lauzon’s time in a Golden Knights sweater. Lauzon will become an Unrestricted Free Agent on July 1st, and after the postseason he had, he is due for a raise that the Golden Knights most likely couldn’t afford to pay him.
As per usual, the Golden Knights have been linked to just about every big name on the trade block. Their flurry of activity, combined with how efficiently they’ve freed up salary cap space, probably signals that something big is coming.
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