Rasmus Andersson has re-signed with the Vegas Golden Knights on a seven-year contract worth $8.5 million annually, a source told ESPN's Emily Kaplan.
Agreeing to a new deal for Andersson, who had 17 goals and 47 points in the 2025-26 season, was the most pressing concern going into the offseason for the Golden Knights just weeks after they lost the Stanley Cup Final to the Carolina Hurricanes.
The Golden Knights were facing considerable questions about Andersson's future, among other items, with PuckPedia projecting they had $4.625 million in salary cap space.
Vegas' road to re-signing Andersson began at the NHL draft last week when it traded pending restricted free agent and two-time 30-goal scorer Pavel Dorofeyev. Although he was not under contract, the trade provided the Golden Knights with future savings.
Golden Knights general manager Kelly McCrimmon would then use this week to trade goaltender Akira Schmid, who was also a pending RFA, to the Florida Panthers for the same reason he traded Dorofeyev.
McCrimmon traded defenseman Kaedan Korczak to the Pittsburgh Penguins for Parker Wotherspoon on Tuesday in a deal that saw them shed Korczak's $3.25 million cap hit while the Penguins retained 50% of Wotherspoon's $1 million cap hit for 2026-27 season.
Vegas increased its projected salary cap space to $7.375 million with the idea that figure became $16.175 million upon the expectation that it would place defenseman Alex Pietrangelo along with his $8.8 million cap hit on season-ending long-term injured reserve.
Possessing that much cap space allowed Vegas to reportedly re-sign defenseman Jeremy Lauzon to a five-year deal worth $4 million annually to give the franchise six defensemen under contract for next season.
A few items made retaining Andersson a major priority for the Golden Knights.
They got the 29-year-old defenseman in a January trade from the Calgary Flames in exchange for defenseman Zach Whitecloud, prospect defenseman Abram Wiebe, a 2027 first-round draft pick and a 2028 conditional second-round pick.
Not only did the trade provide them with a top-four defenseman, but it saw Andersson reunite with his former Flames defense partner in Noah Hanifin.
Together, Andersson and Hanifin played key roles in helping the Golden Knights advance to the Stanley Cup Final for the third time in their history.
