Better luck next year: The Vegas Golden Knights did it again

They found a way to get their man and acquire a big star. Will Mitch Marner and the Golden Knights give each other what they need?

Welcome back to Better Luck Next Year, a series that will focus on each team as they get eliminated from Stanley Cup Playoff contention and the Stanley Cup Playoffs. What went wrong, why it went wrong, what (if anything) went right, and what is next. We continue today with the next team to be eliminated from the Stanley Cup Playoffs: The Vegas Golden Knights.

There are a handful of teams in the NHL where the salary cap always seemed to be more of a suggestion than some sort of hard rule that had to be followed. I mean, it IS a hard rule that has to be followed, but there are a couple of teams that always find a way to get the player they want, no matter the cost, and no matter what their actual salary cap situation is going into it.

The Vegas Golden Knights are one of those teams, and they did it again this offseason by landing the biggest free agent on the market in forward Mitch Marner.

Marner is the Golden Knights’ latest big-ticket addition, signing an eight-year, $96 million contract in a sign-and-trade deal with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

From the moment Vegas entered the NHL — or at least from the moment it showed it was a good team — it has always been a factor in whatever top free agent or trade target is available. Big moves are the Golden Knights’ DNA, and they will do whatever is necessary to complete them no matter what the cost or what their salary cap situation ends up being.

They will dump anybody, trade anybody, and sacrifice whatever they need to sacrifice to keep adding to give their team the best possible chance to win.

Overall, it’s hard to argue with the results. Since joining the NHL Vegas is fifth in regular season wins, second in postseason wins, has played in four Conference Finals, two Stanley Cup Final and won it all once.

Marner joins a list that includes Jack Eichel, Mark Stone, Alex Pietrangelo, Noah Hanifin and Tomas Hertl as impact additions to the roster in recent years, and also helps fill a gigantic need for scoring help on the wing.

It took a lot of moving parts to actually get him in Vegas.

• Defenseman Alex Pietrangelo is stepping away from hockey for the time being due to hip issues, clearing his $8.8 million salary cap number.

• They traded defenseman Nicolas Hague to Nashville, allowing the Predators to be the team to overpay him in restricted free agency, while also getting Nashville to retain some salary on the two players (Colton Sissons and Jeremy Lauzon) coming back the other way.

• They traded Nicolas Roy and his $3 million salary to Toronto as part of the sign-and-trade to get Marner.

At the end of the day, they got their guy, upgraded their roster, didn’t have to panic trade any other core members of their team and are going into next season with what should be an upgraded roster.

But how is that all going to play out? And is it going to be enough to get through Edmonton, Dallas and the other top contenders in the Western Conference?

More specifically … is Marner really what Vegas needed? And is Vegas perhaps what Marner needed?

Let’s talk about it.