Golden Knights sign Jeremy Lauzon to six-year contract extension

A year full of players who could have been free agents on July 1, 2026 taking their names off the market by signing contract extensions rolled on Tuesday night, even with just over 12 hours until 12:00 PM Eastern Wednesday, when unrestricted free agency begins.

According to multiple reports, the Vegas Golden Knights have signed defenseman Jeremy Lauzon to a six-year contract extension that will carry a salary cap hit of $4 million.

Lauzon, a 28-year-old lefty who the Knights acquired in a trade with the Nashville Predators last offseason, had 13 points in 68 regular season games for Vegas while skating to a minus-3 rating on an average of 17:11 of time on ice per game.

In his NHL career, which began with the Boston Bruins in 2018-19, he has 58 points in 384 career regular season games. The Quebec native appeared in 12 postseason games as Vegas won the Western Conference.

The Golden Knights and general manager Kelly McCrimmon are hard at work at building another Stanley Cup contender after the club just fell in their third appearance in a Cup Final in just nine seasons of existence.

With the team hard-pressed up against the salary cap, that means making tough decisions, like trading star scoring winger Pavel Dorofeyev to the New York Rangers for draft picks.

According to PuckPedia, the Knights have $7.375 million in salary cap space as of now, but that is prior to accounting for any injured reserve-related relief for Alex Pietrangelo’s $8.8 million cap hit.

Retaining Lauzon was not the only move McCrimmon made to bolster his blue line for next year on Tuesday, as he also acquired Parker Wotherspoon in a deal with the Pittsburgh Penguins in exchange for Kaeden Korczak. After the Penguins’ retention on Wotherspoon, the new defenseman will count for just $500,000 against the cap for Vegas.