The Vegas Golden Knights have signed forward Keegan Kolesar to a three-year, $7.5 million contract extension, the team announced Friday.
The deal will keep Kolesar in Vegas through the end of the 2027-28 campaign.
Kolesar was set to become an unrestricted free agent at the end of this year. He is the lastest in a series of pending free agents Kelly McCrimmon has locked up early this season. That list includes Shea Theodore (seven years, AAV: $7.425 million), Brayden McNabb (three years, AAV: $3.65 million) and Brett Howden (five years, AAV: $2.5 million).
Kolesar’s $2.5 million cap hit offers a $1.1 million raise over his current three-year, $4.2 million deal, which he signed in 2022.
The 27-year-old has played his entire 304-game career with the Golden Knights, recording 33 goals and 84 points along with 1,001 hits, which ranks third all-time in franchise history.
Kolesar, who has taken on a larger role on and off the ice in the wake of Vegas’ offseason shake-up, has seven goals and 11 points through 29 games this season and leads the team with 90 hits.
Kolesar was originally acquired from Columbus in June 2017. The Golden Knights flipped a second-round pick from the Nikita Gusev deal to land the rugged forward, who began his Vegas career with the ECHL Quad City Mallards before playing parts of three seasons with the Chicago Wolves, Vegas’ AHL affiliate at the time.
Notably, Kolesar played a key role on Vegas’ fourth line throughout its march to the first Stanley Cup in team history. He scored a goal and an assist in the first period of Vegas’ dominant Game 6 win against Dallas to reach the Stanley Cup Final.
The former ECHL forward is now a mainstay in the NHL, but this new deal means he will be expected to continue to produce. He is one goal shy of tying his career high of eight.