Vegas clears cap room, ships Pacioretty to Canes

Greg Wyshynski is ESPN’s senior NHL writer.

The Vegas Golden Knights traded star winger Max Pacioretty to the Carolina Hurricanes on Wednesday in a salary clearing move.

Pacioretty and defenseman Dylan Coghlan were moved to the Hurricanes for future considerations, sources confirmed to ESPN.

Pacioretty, 33, played the last four seasons with the Golden Knights. He spent the first 10 years of his career with the Montreal Canadiens, who traded him to Vegas in 2019 for center Nick Suzuki, Tomas Tatar and a second-round choice.

Pacioretty scored 37 points in 39 games during an injury-plagued 2021-22 season as the Golden Knights failed to make the postseason for the first time. He had 97 goals and 97 assists in 224 games with the Golden Knights. He has one more year left on his contract with a $7 million salary-cap hit.

Coghlan, 24, is entering his third NHL season having played 88 games. He had 19 points. He played two seasons with the AHL Chicago Wolves before that.

In total, the Golden Knights saved $7.76M in cap space. Vegas was around $2 million over the salary cap and needed to give unrestricted free agent forward Reilly Smith a contract extension.

For the Hurricanes, Pacioretty gives them a veteran goal-scoring winger that their lineup needed. He’s the second significant veteran player they added on Wednesday, having also traded for defenseman Brent Burns of the San Jose Sharks.

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