Golden Knights Also Linked To Forward From Blues Following Andersson Trade

The Vegas Golden Knights may not be done after acquiring Rasmus Andersson from the Calgary Flames as they are also looking to upgrade their forward group. The team has been linked to the St. Louis Blues' captain.

David Pagnotta said, "Brayden Schenn is another name that the Golden Knights have circled around on." This would be a little tricky, but if the Golden Knights are willing to part with Zach Whitecloud to bring in Andersson, they are willing to cut ties with one of their forwards who are making around $2-3 million.

Schenn isn't having the best year offensively, but nobody on the Blues is either. The veteran has nine goals and 19 points on the season, but has over 100 hits and is over 54% in the faceoff circle. He hasn't played much penalty kill at all this season, but he has in his past and could be an option there. The type of player he is, the Golden Knights would likely be very happy with his services for playoff runs in which they are beefing up for.

The tricky part is that Schenn still has two more years left on his deal at $6.5 million AAV, so some salary retention would have to happen or getting a third team involved. If the Blues keep on even $1.5 million AAV for the remainder of the contract and the Golden Knights send back a contract, the team has enough cap space ($3.8 million) to make a deal work.

A player that would have to be involved in the deal includes Brandon Saad, Reilly Smith, Keegan Kolesar, or William Karlsson. Saad and Smith are on one-year deals, but both have no-move clauses. Kolesar has two years left on his deal and has no trade protection, and Karlsson has a 10-team no-trade clause for this year and next. Saad and Smith have $2 million AAV cap hits, Kolesar has a $2.5 million AAV, and Karlsson has a $5.9 million AAV, which could line up nicely and involve no cap retention, plus suit the Blues in a retooling.