'I don't think they tried their best to keep me': Marchessault talks free agency

LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Monday marked the start of the National Hockey League's free agency period and several Vegas Golden Knights will be suiting up for different teams next season.

That includes Jonathan Marchessault, who has signed a five-year deal with the Nashville Predators, according to multiple reports. That deal is worth $5.5 million a year.

Marchessault was interviewed by The Sports Network and said he didn't think the Vegas Golden Knights "tried their best to keep me."

"It was pretty tough, to be honest. The tough part of it was there wasn't really a decent offer on the table," Marchessault said. "It's part of the business and they probably have other plans. That's the business we're in so you move on and I think Nashville was the best fit for me. I'm at a point in my career where I don't want to just play hockey games. I want to win hockey games. Going there, I think everybody is on the same page and we want to win. I'm definitely excited to get there."

However, on Monday afternoon, Vegas Golden Knights GM Kelly McCrimmon disagreed with those comments saying the team put a solid, fair offer on the table.

"With Marchy, we spoke to [him] before the season began. We spoke to Marchy at the All-Star break. When I say with Marchy, I also mean his representatives. Following the season, we had a number of meetings with his agent, Pat Brisson. We had numerous calls. We met in person twice, at Buffalo at the NHL combine and at the draft here on two occasions," McCrimmon said. "On Thursday, the day before the NHL Draft, we felt that we had a pathway to get a deal done. I felt both parties were on the way to finishing, to completing a deal. The next day, just prior to the draft, things really changed."

McCrimmon said the sticking point of a potential deal was the contract lasting five years.

"That wasn't something we were comfortable with and quite frankly, the data doesn't support," McCrimmon said. "He's going to be 38 years old in that final season and maybe Marchy can, because he's proved people wrong his whole career but it wasn't a position we were comfortable with. So that's really where it got to and we couldn't bridge that gap. He moved on. We wish him well."

The Misfit is the first player in VGK history to play in 500 games and tops the Knights leaderboard in goals (192) and points (417). He is also coming off one of his best seasons with 69 points (42 goals, 27 assists) last season and four points in seven playoffs games.

Vegas had the chance to re-sign Marchessault last summer but didn't do so.

"I asked last summer. I said I would rather do it in the summer before the season," Marchessault previously said. "They said they're not ready to do that, and after there's not even a single talk that I've had during the season. I don't know."

Marchessault's agent, Pat Brisson, previously told the Associated Press that while the goal was to stay in Vegas, they weren't ruling out other options.

"He's been in Vegas ever since its inception seven years ago. He likes it there, been producing, won the Cup last year, won the Conn Smythe. He's having a hell of a season this year. His production is not going down," Brisson said. "It's a business at the end of the day. We have to look at it this way, and we do understand how sometimes these things would go but we also believe players (who) keep producing, keep doing well, good things will happen."

Marchessault isn't the only Golden Knight who is moving on.

Vegas has also lost William Carrier, Alec Martinez, Michael Amadio, Chandler Stephenson, Anthony Mantha, and Jiri Patera to free agency. This comes after VGK traded Logan Thompson and Paul Cotter at the end of the 2024 NHL Draft.

There has been talk the moves were made due to the salary cap. For example, the team acquired Tomas Hertl and Noah Hanifin before the trade deadline and their contracts are worth more than $13 million combined.

Last month, the NHL announced they are raising the salary cap to $88 million. That's up $4.5 million from the salary cap of $83.5 million this season.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman is predicting the salary cap will continue to go up in the future.

“Obviously, with the number of years we had with flat or modest increases it was necessary to recapture how much was overpaid and how much the escrow built up during COVID, but I believe we’re going to continue to see robust growth in the cap.”

The players pay a percentage of their salaries into escrow to assure a 50-50 split of hockey-related revenue between the players and the teams, as allotted under the NHL/NHLPA Collective Bargaining Agreement. The players accrued an approximate $1.5 billion escrow debt in 2019-20 when the season was paused because of the pandemic but they continued to be paid.

The NHL and NHLPA also announced, per the collective bargaining agreement, the lower limit per team for next season will be $65 million and the midpoint will be $76.5 million.