George McPhee has always talked about two priorities for his stewardship of the Vegas Golden Knights: to be competitive in the here and now while continuing to load up on prospects to protect his team's future.
That's a tricky tightrope to walk, and the emergence of the Golden Knights as a top team in the NHL and a trip to the Stanley Cup in the franchise's first year has tilted those priorities in favor of the present.
So, when a player like Max Pacioretty comes available and McPhee has the assets to acquire him, it requires serious consideration. There has to be a judicious weighing of the benefit and the cost. In this instance, McPhee was able to grab one of the NHL's best goal scorers to pair with center Paul Stastny and create a duo which fits in the top six of any team in the NHL.
Pacioretty Deal A Result Of McPhee's Creativity
The cost, Tomas Tatar, prospect Nick Suzuki and a 2019 second round pick wasn't immaterial but the opportunity to grab a player like Pacioretty and extend his contract for four more seasons couldn't be passed up.
McPhee's work in 2017 - amassing draft picks throughout the expansion draft process and then pulling in a deep and talented group of prospects at the amateur draft - has put him in the position of playing with house money.
Suzuki sat behind Cody Glass on the Golden Knights prospect depth chart at center. The draft pick McPhee sent to Montreal was acquired from Columbus in a previous trade and McPhee still has his own second round pick in 2019. Tatar moves off the VGK roster and Pacioretty steps in.
Vegas dealt from a position of strength and didn't create new holes while filling another. They also got the best player in the trade.
"We're a better team today than we were yesterday," said McPhee. "We think (Pacioretty) is going to be a good fit. We have a coach (Gerard Gallant) who's worked with him in the past, knows what he can do, believes he'll play very well here."
Some deal points to consider:
- Pacioretty has 152 even strength goals since 2011-12 which is third behind Alex Ovechkin (175) and John Tavares (153). He's scored 30 goals in five seasons with a career high of 39. Here's a scouting report on him from one NHL personnel guru.
"He's a goal scorer. He can play on both special teams and he's quietly been an elite player in the NHL for a long time. He's produced without the benefit of an elite centerman. Imagine what he could have done playing with Nick Backstrom like Ovechkin has. He can score from anywhere. He does it all with his wrist shot. It's an elite release and his shot his heavy. The puck just gets up and goes. He's an excellent skate and very strong on his skates."
2. Pacioretty has played with Stastny on a few occasions with Team USA and the two combined for 21 points in eight games playing on the same line at the 2012 World Championship. They have chemistry.
3. The addition of Pacioretty now only bolsters the second line but will improve the third line as well. If Erik Haula moves to the wing on the second line, Alex Tuch will work on the third line. Or vice versa. Either way, there's more scoring depth in the middle six for Vegas.
4. McPhee acquired Tatar at last year's trade deadline for three draft picks. Then moved him, Suzuki and a pick for Pacioretty. That's a lot of assets to part with but in the end, McPhee got a player which could change the fortunes of his team.
"The deal we did last March was market driven, that was the price we paid at that time to help our hockey club and we can't allow what we did three months ago to affect a good decision today," said McPhee. "We're going to do what's right for the club and we did.
5. McPhee signed Pacioretty to a four-year and $28 million extension as part of the deal.
"It took a couple of months. I think it started right after the Draft. It's ongoing. Sometimes a lot of talk, sometimes quiet. Things picked up in the last three/four days. We were getting to a place Sunday morning where we thought the deal was possible and then we had a window of six or seven hours to agree to an extension with Max. We had till about 7:00 pm PT last night to get a deal done with the player because this trade wasn't going to happen if we didn't have an extension," explained McPhee "Montreal was reluctant to do that, but finally gave us the opportunity to talk to him because there had been at least one deal prior to this one that didn't work out. Montreal had a deal with a club but the contract didn't work out. But Marc Bergevin gave us the opportunity to talk to the player and his agent. It took a while, to about one minute before 7:00 pm PT and we got it done. So, there were a lot of things. Once you agree in principle to get done, structure and so on, it takes quite a while. That's how this came together."
