- Vegas signed Braeden Bowman to a six-year, $20.4 million extension that starts in 2027-28
- The undrafted 23-year-old put up 26 points in 54 games as a rookie last season
- Read below for the numbers, the quotes and the video of Bowman at the VGK Golf Classic
An undrafted kid from Kitchener just got paid by the Stanley Cup runners-up.
The Vegas Golden Knights signed forward Braeden Bowman to a six-year, $20.4 million extension on Thursday, a deal that carries a $3.4 million cap hit and kicks in with the 2027-28 season.
Vegas announced it with a graphic and a nickname:
Bowman is 23 and still has one season left on the two-year entry-level deal he signed in March 2025. He could have hit restricted free agency next summer. Instead the Knights bought out his three remaining years of team control plus three years he would have spent as a UFA.
His rookie numbers were solid without being loud. Eight goals, 18 assists, 26 points in 54 games, with four of those points coming on the power play. He averaged 14:08 a night and got into one playoff game as Vegas ran to the Cup Final.
The front office has been saying this out loud since the summer. General manager Kelly McCrimmon was talking about Bowman’s spot on the roster back on July 1.
“He really proved that he belongs,” McCrimmon said. “He’ll be an everyday player with us.”
Bowman’s opening was Mark Stone’s broken finger. Called up in November, he scored five goals and 11 points in his first 15 games, drawing top power play reps and shifts alongside Jack Eichel. The rookie wall showed up eventually, with only 15 points over his last 39 games, but he had already made himself impossible to scratch.
That first NHL goal came in St. Louis on Nov. 15, a power play one-timer off a Pavel Dorofeyev feed in a 4-1 win that snapped a four-game Vegas skid. Watch the highlights from that night:
Two days before the extension landed, Bowman met the media at the team’s annual golf classic at TPC Summerlin and was asked what he wants out of this season.
“That’s my goal, to become a full-time player with the Knights,” Bowman told Danny Webster of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “I’m excited. The team’s looking really good again. Vegas always has a strong team, so I’m just trying to establish my identity on the team and we’ll see where it goes.”
Here’s Bowman at the golf classic:
Teams have been handing these out all offseason. Pittsburgh gave Ville Koivunen eight years at $4 million after 47 career games, and Boston just locked up Fraser Minten for seven years at $7.2 million. Vegas is playing the same game, betting that $3.4 million looks cheap in three years.
Bowman came up through Jr. B hockey in the GOJHL before becoming a star winger and captain with the OHL’s Guelph Storm. Nobody drafted him.
He gets his first crack at a full-time job when Vegas opens the season against Chicago on Sept. 29, and 31 other teams have to watch it knowing they passed.
