It’s been quite the week for Brandon Saad.
On Tuesday, the veteran winger was placed on waivers to be sent to the American Hockey League. After clearing through, the St. Louis Blues and Saad agreed to mutually terminate his contract, which had one more season and $4.5 million remaining.
By Friday afternoon, he had a new deal with a new team.
The Vegas Golden Knights inked Saad to a one-year contract that PuckPedia has reported is worth $1.5 million prorated, meaning he’ll earn $601k in cash the rest of the season.
Saad was selected in the second round of the 2011 NHL Draft by the Chicago Blackhawks and won two Stanley Cups with the team in 2013 and 2015. The Hawks traded Saad to the Columbus Blue Jackets following that second championship and reacquired him two years later when they moved Artemi Panarin to Columbus.
After playing with Columbus, Chicago, and the Colorado Avalanche, Saad inked a five-year contract with the Blues in July of 2021 worth $4.5 million annually. Through four seasons of that contract before having it terminated, Saad scored 76 goals and 144 points over 274 games with the Blues.
His best season in St. Louis was his first, as Saad scored 24 goals and 49 points and helped the Blues reach the second round of the playoffs in 2021-22. He declined to 19 goals and 37 points in 2022-23 and bounced back with 26 goals and 42 points in 2023-24, though the Blues missed the playoffs both years.
With only seven goals and 16 points through 43 games in 2024-25 and St. Louis headed toward another finish on the outside of the playoffs, the Blues decided it was time to move on.
Once he hit the free agent market, multiple teams, including the Edmonton Oilers, showed interest in the two-time Stanley Cup champion. The 32-year-old wound up with the Golden Knights, a team battling for top spot in the Pacific Division.
Vegas ranks third in the NHL in goals scored in all situations this season thanks to a deep offence. Pavel Dorofeyev is leading the way with 22 goals and Tomas Hertl is right behind him with 20. After that, the Golden Knights have six forwards who have reached double digits in goals: Jack Eichel and Brett Howden with 16, Ivan Barbashev with 15, Mark Stone with 13, Victor Olofsson with 11, and Keegan Kolesar with 10.