Adin Hill’s trade market keeps circling back to one stubborn issue: money.
According to David Pagnotta on Leafs Morning Take, teams interested in the Vegas Golden Knights goalie want the club to keep part of his contract in any deal. Pagnotta put it plainly: "Teams want Vegas to retain on Adin Hill's contract."
That wrinkle helps explain why talks haven’t gone anywhere. Hill’s $6.25 million cap hit is proving hard to move, even for teams that have room to absorb salary. The source of the holdup is simple enough: clubs would rather not take on the full number themselves, and Vegas would rather not be the one eating the cost.
That creates a problem for the Golden Knights, especially because Kelly McCrimmon’s usual trade approach runs the other way. In deals involving Vegas, the other team is generally the one asked to retain salary, as seen in previous examples with the San Jose Sharks and the Pittsburgh Penguins. It is rarely Vegas that agrees to carry part of a player’s deal for someone else.
If the Golden Knights did agree to retain salary on Hill, that commitment would last for the rest of the contract, which runs through 2031. That kind of cap space could be used in better ways, including filling one to three roster spots, rather than staying tied to an injured netminder’s salary.
For now, the picture is getting clearer, and not in the way some fans hoped. Hill appears likely to remain with Vegas, and the trade chatter around him keeps getting more complicated.
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