Golden Knights Reportedly Have Verbal Agreement with Reilly Smith

According to Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff, the Vegas Golden Knights have agreed to a contract extension with forward Reilly Smith.

Smith, 31, who is one few Golden Knights who has been with the organization since day one, was set to become an unrestricted free agent this summer. Given his solid two-way play throughout his tenure with the organization, most expected him to be forced to find another team this offseason given the Golden Knights cap issues, but it appears they have found a way to make this work.

Seravalli did mention that while there is a verbal agreement in place, it may not be immediately announced due to offseason/tagging cap considerations. Nonetheless, it appears there is a deal in place here, meaning Smith will return for a sixth season with the Golden Knights.

Though he fought injuries in 2021-22 which limited him to just 56 games, Smith was very effective when healthy with 16 goals and 38 points. As previously mentioned, he is also very steady defensively, making it interesting to see what his cap hit comes in at on this new deal. His previous deal was five-years long with an average annual value of $5 million, and it wouldn’t come as a surprise to see this next deal look very similar.

While it is great the two sides were able to work out a new deal, the Golden Knights have some serious cap issues to work through this summer. Despite being able to ship off Evgenii Dadonov for Shea Weber, who will finish out his deal on the long-term injured reserve, they are still at the cap ceiling, and this deal with Reilly Smith will push the Golden Knights well above it. In the upcoming weeks and months, it is likely they look to deal a few other players in cap dump type moves, though who those players are remains to be seen.