The last time Reilly Smith donned a Golden Knights jersey, he was strolling around the ice at T-Mobile Arena with the Stanley Cup hoisted above his head on June 13, 2023. Smith scored the Cup-clinching goal that night, paraded the trophy down the Las Vegas Strip, and was traded away shortly after as a salary cap casualty.
Following Thursday’s trade from New York to Vegas, he’ll be trying to help the Golden Knights do it again.
Vegas sent 2020 first-round pick Brendan Brisson and a third-round pick in 2025 to the Rangers in exchange for Smith. New York retained half of Smith’s cap hit in the deal, meaning he’ll only count $937,500 toward the cap for the Golden Knights.
It’s a sentimental homecoming for Smith, his teammates and fans across the Las Vegas Valley. The 33-year-old winger has played the fifth-most games (399) and scored the third-most goals (124) in franchise history. He’s one of the original “Golden Misfits,” acquired from Florida during the 2017 expansion draft.
Smith has played for six different NHL teams, but over his six years with the Golden Knights he regularly referred to Las Vegas as home for he and his family. He started an annual celebrity softball game that has since raised more than $850,000 for local charities.
From a vibes standpoint, this trade is perfection. There may not be a (reasonably available) player in the league who the Golden Knights would rather see walking through those dressing room doors than the former alternate captain who helped them win a Cup.
Even when removing the emotion, the trade makes a lot of sense for Vegas. The club’s biggest need by far entering this trade deadline was scoring depth, particularly on the left wing. Smith should provide exactly that, while also giving coach Bruce Cassidy another responsible forward to kill penalties and face tough matchups on a nightly basis.
“I think it will be a good addition for us,” Cassidy said Thursday. “He’s a veteran guy, he knows how we play, he knows the room, he knows the expectations. He’s comfortable here in pretty much every aspect, I would think.”
The Golden Knights are solid up the middle, with one of the best center groups in the league led by Jack Eichel, Tomas Hertl and William Karlsson. Their defense is stout with Alex Pietrangelo, Noah Hanifin, Brayden McNabb and Shea Theodore, who should return at some point from a broken wrist suffered at the 4 Nations Face-Off. They have a strong belief in Adin Hill, and he’s played incredibly coming out of the break.
Vegas’ lone weakness is at the wing, and specifically on the left side where it’s a bit thin beyond Ivan Barbashev. And while the Golden Knights rank sixth in the league in scoring – and put up five goals in an impressive offensive outing against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday – they’ve gone stretches this season where scoring is their biggest issue.
“I believe we will score enough,” Cassidy said on Wednesday. “I think coaches would say, ‘can we score a little bit easier?’ Right now we’re not scoring as easy as we’d like to.”
Cassidy went on to say that depth scoring would be his area of improvement if he had a wish list for the deadline. The following day, general manager Kelly McCrimmon added the player with the fifth-most points in franchise history.
Reilly Smith was a key component of the Vegas team that won the Stanley Cup in 2023. (Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
Smith, whose contract expires at the end of this season, should slot into the lineup easier than a typical trade-deadline addition.
“Sometimes when guys come in it takes them a while to get acclimated,” Cassidy said. “They defer a lot because they’re coming into a locker room that has had success, so they want to fit in. Reilly knows pretty much everyone in the room. There’s a lot of familiarity so it should be a lot more seamless.”
Immediately following the deal, Cassidy wasn’t sure if Smith will be available for Friday night’s game against the Pittsburgh Penguins, or which line he’ll play on, but he does have a vision for Smith’s long-term fit.
“He has a lot of familiarity with William Karlsson, who skated again today,” Cassidy said. “I can’t tell you exactly when he’s coming back into the lineup, but when they’re both healthy it would make sense to revisit that and see what it looks like.”
Karlsson has practiced with the team this week, wearing a red sweater to designate no contact. He has missed the last 14 games with a lower-body injury. Cassidy also mentioned how effective Karlsson and Smith were together on the penalty kill, so it’s likely we’ll see that dynamic duo reunited as well. The two are first and second in franchise history in short-handed goals.
At even strength, Smith’s style should allow him to play on any of Vegas’ four lines. His high-end hockey IQ and on-ice vision could be a good fit on a top-six line, although Smith’s offensive production has dipped considerably since leaving Vegas. He can also play the type of direct, defensively-minded game Cassidy asks from his checking lines.
“For us it’s (about) balancing our lines out even more,” Cassidy said.
After putting up 26 goals and 30 assists in 2022-23 – his final year in Vegas – Smith has registered only 23 goals and 46 assists in the last two seasons in Pittsburgh and New York. He has even sat out games for the Rangers this season, struggling to find offensive consistency. Will a return to the Golden Knights reinvigorate his offensive game?
“He’s got it in him,” Cassidy said. “He’s been gone for a year and a half, why has it not been the same as here? I can’t answer that. When he was here he complimented those guys well. He’s a cerebral player who plays in all situations. He’s a guy that can play on both sides of the puck, and our reports are (that) he still has offensive ability.”
Cassidy stressed that he’s far more concerned with Smith’s overall game and the timeliness of his goals rather than looking for a specific total from him. At the very least, Smith should improve Vegas’ 20th-ranked penalty kill. He already has two short-handed goals this season for the Rangers, and his 15 shorties are the fifth-most in the league since 2016-17.
As for the return on the trade, the price does seem a bit steep based on Smith’s production alone. However, with the added context it feels like a good move for what Vegas needs at the moment. Brisson becomes the 11th first-round pick Vegas has traded away in eight years, but he wasn’t cracking the lineup any time soon and has struggled to produce in the AHL.
This move certainly helps the Golden Knights’ title chances. The only question is whether they could have gotten a better player for Brisson and a third-round pick, and that seems unlikely. That’s mostly because Smith is a more valuable asset to Vegas than he is to the other 31 teams because of his history and fit.
Even if Smith doesn’t return to his form from two years ago, when he was one of the more important pieces of a championship roster, he can still help the team in several facets, including off the ice. Smith wore an “A” in all six of his seasons in Vegas, and adds to an already veteran-laden team that knows how to win in May and June.
Considering the Golden Knights’ limited cap space and future assets, this feels like one of the most impactful moves they could have made prior to Friday’s deadline, especially considering the predictability of Smith’s fit on the team.
(Top photo: Dennis Schneidler / Imagn Images)
