from Ken Wiebe of Sportsnet,

The good news for the Golden Knights is that they’ve got the majority of their core pieces under contract for at least one more season and most for multiple campaigns.

The list of pending unrestricted free agents includes forwards Ivan Barbashev, Phil Kessel, Teddy Blueger along with goaltenders Adin Hill, Laurent Brossoit and Jonathan Quick.

Barbashev was unequivocally the best deadline acquisition made by any NHL team this season and while it would take some salary cap gymnastics to keep him in the fold, you can be sure the Golden Knights would love to keep him around.

The biggest area of uncertainty is in goal, where Logan Thompson (who was in the NHL All-Star Game before he got hurt) is under contract for two more seasons on a contract close to the league minimum and Robin Lehner remains a big question mark after missing the entire season with an injury despite having two more seasons under contract at $5 million.

As for the pending UFAs for 2024, that list includes Conn Smythe winner Jonathan Marchessault, Chandler Stephenson, Michael Amadio and William Carrier up front, along with defencemen Alec Martinez and Ben Hutton.

The Golden Knights found the right mix in 2022-23 and you can expect they’ll use a similar recipe moving forward.

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