NHL Rumors: Golden Knights joins NY Rangers, LA Kings in race to land $7,700,000 Sabres' D-man after $96M Mitch Marner signing

The Vegas Golden Knights might be done rocking the NHL boat this offseason. After pulling off a massive eight-year, $96 million sign-and-trade deal to land Mitch Marner, the Golden Knights could be poised to make another bold move.

In a piece published in The Fourth Period on July 3, the Golden Knights could be poised to extend an offer sheet to RFA blue liner Bowen Byram of the Buffalo Sabres.

Byram has long been rumored to be on the trade block as the Sabres seem unlikely to reach an agreement with the 24-year-old blue liner. Byram is expected to get a hefty pay raise after signing a two-year, $7.7 million contract with the Colorado Avalanche.

The Avalanche traded Byram to the Sabres last season in a deal that landed Casey Mittelstadt in Colorado. The Sabres have been trying to extend Byram, but to no avail.

The Fourth Period also names the NY Rangers and the LA Kings as potential suitors for Byram. The Rangers traded K’Andre Miller to the Carolina Hurricanes and promptly signed Vladislav Gavrikov, the prized UFA defenseman of this offseason.

As for the Kings, they lost Gavrikov in NHL free agency. So, the team has a hole it would like to plug with Byram.

Sabres’ GM Kevyn Adams has stated he’s willing to match any offer sheet on Byram. However, if the team cannot retain Byram, it would prefer to trade Byram to recoup talent instead of taking draft picks as compensation.

Two issues that could derail Golden Knights’ chance of issuing an offer sheet to Byram

Two issues stand out as potential roadblocks in the Golden Knights’ efforts to issue an offer sheet to Bowen Byram.

First, the Golden Knights don’t have the cap space to make the deal work. As it stands, the Knights are over the cap ceiling by more than $7.5 million. That situation means that the team will need to clear cap space to make Byram’s potential new contract work.

Vegas will be able to add Alex Pietrangelo’s $8 million cap hit to LTIR next season. However, the issue is that the Knights would need to clear cap space now to remain compliant. The rules allow teams to exceed the cap by 10% during the summer.

Second, the Knights don’t have the draft picks required to pay the compensation needed to cover signing an RFA. Assuming that Byram’s offer sheet exceeds $9 million, the Golden Knights would have to pay a 2026 first, second, and third-round pick.

The Knights have their second and third-rounders but don’t have the first. That situation would mean the Knights would have to get their first-round pick back in order to pay the requisite compensation.

In short, Vegas wouldn’t be able to pull off an offer sheet for Byram unless the club recovers its first-round pick. Perhaps the threat of an offer sheet is enough to bring the Sabres to the bargaining table and work out a trade with Vegas, instead.