NHL analyst claims league-leading franchise is "100% in the market" to add ahead of the trade deadline

The Vegas Golden Knights are somewhat quietly the best team in the NHL right now. The 2023 Stanley Cup champions currently sit atop the league with a 27-9-3 record and 57 points. This comes despite losing several key players this summer due to salary cap restraints, including Jonathan Marchessault, Chandler Stephenson, and Logan Thompson.

The Golden Knights have been especially hot of late, racking up eight wins in their last nine games to catapult themselves up the standings.

We know how aggressive Vegas has been in its eight-year existence, consistently making big splashes at the NHL trade deadline. On Tuesday, Ray Ferraro of ESPN talked about what he believes the Golden Knights' trade deadline plans will be on the "Ray and Dregs hockey podcast."

"103 percent. Kelly with Cap space. And the need is, like, a free day in the summer that I could go play golf, and I'm gonna say I could go or not, because, of course, I'm going to play like, there's no like Vegas is, statistically, they are one of the top two teams right? They might be one, they might be two at this point," Ferraro said.

"Vegas is never in any season in their short history, they're never in any season to be a participant. They don't, they don't want that ribbon. And so they so, yes, 100% and so they'll identify the need that becomes most specific, and then they can go attack it, and I would say they're, they're 100% in the market," Ferraro added.

Timestamp: 20:40

Jack Eichel is off to the best start of his NHL career

The success of the Vegas Golden Knights to begin the 2024-25 NHL campaign is largely due to Jack Eichel. The 28-year-old center is having a career-best season to date. He's racked up 52 points (11 goals, 41 assists) in 39 games and is on a 109-point pace which would shatter his previous career-high of 82 points back in 2018-19 for the Buffalo Sabres.

The Massachusetts native is one of many dynamite trade acquisitions made by general manager Kelly McCrimmon.

Eichel and the Golden Knights will hope to continue their dominant play when they return to the ice on Tuesday night in San Jose to face the Sharks. The puck drops at 10:30 p.m. EST at SAP Center.