It's no secret that the Vegas Golden Knights are one of the best teams in the NHL. Since day one of their existence, their team has fashioned together a roster that works well together. Over the years, Sin City has become a destination for players on the move. Free agents and disgruntled players alike have flocked there. As a result, the team has become highly successful, earning three trips to the Stanley Cup Finals in its nine-year history.
But success comes at a price. To keep a team like that rolling, you want to keep the band together. This offseason, Vegas has team captain Mark Stone and assistant captain William Karlsson eligible for extensions. Likewise, Reilly Smith, Brandon Saad, Cole Smith, Ben Hutton, Jeremy Lauzon, Rasmus Andersson, and Dylan Coughlan will be free agents this year. Any of them would make a great addition to any team.
However, there is another player the Flyers should be interested in. That is pending restricted free agent Pavel Dorofeyev. He is a 6'1", 195 lbs left winger who was a third-round pick in 2019. In 2020, he played on the same KHL team as former Flyer Ivan Fedotov.
After a slow start to his career, Dorofeyev has scored 35+ goals in the last two seasons as a third-line left winger. He'll turn 26 in October and is proof that if someone has talent, give them solid teammates and some time to get used to things in the NHL, and they will blossom. For that reason alone, he might be a great partner to pair up with Matvei Michkov.
He is currently earning $1,835,000. Dorofeyev is too good a player to be content with that payday. But can Vegas afford him? Paying him what he is worth might mean they will have to sacrifice some of the key players who have led this team for a long time.
How Briere Can Acquire Dorofeyev
Well, there are two ways to do this. The first is to offersheet him. The more expensive an offer Briere gives, the harder a decision Vegas has to make. However, the higher the offer, the more Vegas could get in return. If the Flyers offer between $7.1 million and $9.5 million, they would have to surrender a first, second, and third-round pick. The Flyers do have the ammunition for an offer like that.
More importantly, Vegas may let that happen. Because of the trades used to acquire their current roster, Vegas is draft pick-deprived right now. They have no first or second-round picks in 2026 and 2027. And they have no second or third-round picks in 2028. They can use all the picks they can get.
However, if Briere doesn't want to give up that many picks, he could offer a first-round pick and some cheap, controllable prospects. Vegas has four free agents on defense this year. Offering them a player/players like Emil Andrae, Helge Grans, and/or Christian Kyrou gives them some cheaper alternatives to employ than what they may currently have. That could help them retain their other free agents.
And to be clear, this is not raiding the cupboard to pay for a guy who is on the wrong side of 30. Dorofeyev is going to be hitting his prime as an over 30 goal scorer. This is not some aging vet who has a few years left in his career. If all things go well, he could be part of this team for the better part of the next five-seven-ten years.
Dorofeyev might be a pie-in-the-sky kind of acquisition. Still, if he could become a Flyer, he would be a great companion to be flying down the left side of the ice with Porter Martone or Michkov on the other side. I know a center seems to be the more popular target, but having a sniper like Dorofeyev would be nothing to sneeze at. Between him and Tyson Foerster, that would be two potentially elite left wingers on the team to complement two potentially elite wingers in Martone and Michkov. How could you not be excited by that?
He would definitely be a hard player to acquire. But if Dylan Larkin is out and ditto for Robert Thomas, Dorofeyev might be a strong pivot. At the very least, it might not be a bad thing to call up Vegas and see what's up. Vegas put themselves into this salary cap crunch. They may not have the cards to play themselves out of it. So, Briere should roll the dice and see what happens.
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