On Monday, the Vegas Golden Knights made a deal with free-agent defender Alex Pietrangelo for seven years at $8.8 million AAV. That put the Golden Knights way above the salary cap, so just now they traded defender Nate Schmidt to the Vancouver Canucks for draft picks.
Per Darren Dreger:
Vegas trades Nate Schmidt to the Vancouver Canucks for a 3rd round draft pick in 2022.
— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) October 13, 2020
The trade will reunite Schmidt with former teammates Braden Holtby and Jay Beagle.
Schmidt, 29, has played 200 games as a Golden Knight since he was acquired in the expansion draft by George McPhee, the same GM who signed him undrafted years earlier. Schmidt immediately jumped from third-pairing minutes to a first-pairing role, helping Vegas along to two deep playoff runs in three years. Schmidt was given a lengthy suspension for use of an undisclosed performance-enhancing substance in 2018, his play fell off a bit in 2019-20, though he remains a solid player at both ends of the ice, albeit one with salary-cap hit of nearly $6 million until 2025.
Nate Schmidt is a strong all-around defender who does well in tough minutes signed to a relatively fair deal for the next five seasons. A decent get for the Panthers pic.twitter.com/eeh1plr7sO
— dom luszczyszyn (@domluszczyszyn) October 11, 2020
Schmidt had earlier been linked with Florida, though that deal never materialized.
