When the Vegas Golden Knights ended up missing the playoffs for the first time in franchise history, many seemed to quickly point to Jack Eichel‘s somewhat lackluster 25 points in 34 games this season as part of the problem. Now, as in keeping with the story behind Vegas’ season, team president George McPhee revealed Eichel played the final six weeks of the regular season with a broken thumb after suffering the injury on March 17.
With sniper Max Pacioretty limited to 39 games and captain Mark Stone limited to 37, the Golden Knights were ravaged by injuries on an unprecedented level this season (although this year’s Canadiens also belong in that conversation). The team had just seven skaters hit the 70-game mark, and, to make matters worse, starter Robin Lehner was also limited to just 44 starts as he battled through injury this season as well. If a fully healthy Eichel (after a healthy offseason as well) returns to the Vegas lineup come October, there’s a strong chance the team will pick up where they left off at the end of 2020-21.
- Pending unrestricted free agent Filip Forsberg, just a day after getting swept out of the playoffs, says “the goal is to come back” to the Predators this offseason. Forsberg, 27, is eligible for the open market for the first time this offseason. Coming off a career year in goals (42), assists (42), and points (84), he could easily command something in the $9MM per year range this summer. Nashville doesn’t have any other big free agents to spend on this offseason, and with over $24MM in projected cap space per CapFriendly, it shouldn’t be too hard to get a deal done if he does opt to stay.
- After retaining the first overall pick in tonight’s draft lottery, Montreal Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes says the team doesn’t plan on trading the pick, although he’ll listen if he receives calls. While it’s likely just a standard answer to a standard question, it’s somewhat interesting that he didn’t close off the option entirely. It would likely take an astronomical package to pry the pick and, presumptively, Shane Wright, away from Montreal, who will host the draft.
My money is still on Forsberg being a King, but time will tell.
I disagree. I think he stays with the Preds for family reasons. His fiance is a country music songwriter/singer and her career is in Nashville.
100% agree I think blake will get this one done
@ericl – Sounds a bit like Trouba’s situation. Not unprecedented, and rarely mentioned.
LA has quite a music industry itself. The reason Forsberg hasn’t signed already is because Poile hasn’t made a contract offer acceptable to him. Why would that change now?
Yes, LA has a music industry, but the heart of Country Music is in Nashville. Forsberg’s fiance’s career is there, not LA. That plays a role. The Preds & Forsberg’s agent are still meeting. The met right before the playoffs & are still talking. Forsberg can take a little less to stay in Nashville & still makes as much as he did in LA because Tennessee doesn’t have a state income tax, while California has the highest income tax in the country
While that’s all true, it still doesn’t address the question of why they haven’t reached a deal already? If they’re a million or two apart per season, why would that all of a sudden change now?
I’m just looking at this logically .
Injuries happen to every team. The Kings were not able to ice their top six defenseman at the same time basically the entire season. The Avs dealt with injuries to some of their best players. The Caps played most of the season without Oshie and/or Backstrom. The Bruins lost Bergeron and Pastrnak for extended periods of time at various points in the season. That’s just playoff teams; we haven’t even mentioned the Habs, the Islanders, the Canucks, etc.
The point is, injuries were only a small part of the reason. Relying on an injury prone, unstable goalie with no real plan b is a big issue. Downgrading behind the bench is a bigger issue. But the biggest issue is the depth sacrificed by going about roster construction the way they have. Injuries have just exacerbated the bigger issue.
The Knights lost over 500 games to injuries this year, that’s about 150 more games than the Kings, 200 more than Colorado and Washington, and about 300 more than Boston and the Islanders. In terms of teams that were on the bubble in terms of the playoffs, only the Oilers (-)and Canucks (+) were within 100 games of the Knights.
Cap issues and injuries badly a major role in them not making the playoffs.
Come on. We all know that the knights lost a good chunk of those man games due to the cap, not necessarily because a guy couldn’t go. And if you’re counting eichels games, that’s on them for trading for an injured player.
Come to think of it, that’s also part of the reason for my first point….
Also, @J.H. is right. Big downgrade behind the bench.
A good chunk? You think they lost 200 plus man games to cap mismanagement?
They definitely did not.
Two hundred, no. Several dozen, yes.
I’m kinda curious where you get “over 500 games” from, though. Because let’s face it: some of Smith’s and Stone’s games were definitely cap related, and they TRADED for Eichel — his missing games were something the Knights did to themselves. So let’s take a look.
Marchessault, Stephenson, Theodore, Pietrangelo, Dadonov, Roy, Kolesar, all played 76 games or more.
Pacioretty missed half the season; so did Stone. Lehner missed some time, but he played in 44 games all the same; they wouldn’t have started him more than 60, a mark he’s never achieved anyway. (Besides, the games he missed were taken up by Logan Thompson. Tell me that’s a minus.)
Carrier missed some time, but the 63 games he did play are the second most he’s played in eight years as a pro; he has NEVER, even in junior, played a full season. Whitecloud missed some time, and even so it’s his career high in games. Janmark missed a dozen games. Martinez I’ll grant you, but it’s been several years since he’s played a full season as well.
And now we’re getting into bottom-feeders. Putative time that the likes of Dylan Coghlan or Ben Hutton missed isn’t something you’re claiming had a material impact on VGK’s play, are you?
Yeah … I’m taking that “over 500 games” with a serious, serious grain of salt.
It doesn’t really matter how you spin the injuries, the fact is that they just exacerbated bigger issues; lack of depth created by chasing star power at all costs, and a coach that couldn’t keep his team competitive and engaged when things were tough.
Also, as others have pointed out, when you rely on injury prone players, with no depth to compensate, and they get injured, isn’t that on the team? This is exactly the kind of team that fails every year.
You can see the data here: link to twitter.com
Again, to reiterate what others have said; citing games lost to injury as a reason for the Knights missing the playoffs ignores crucial context, specifically that the Knights couldn’t have possibly played their entire roster as constructed due to cap constraints. That’s the whole point we’re making. Those games were always going to be lost, or, more accurately, were never able to be gained in the first place. All of this is due to poor roster construction, which is the actual issue here. Not ‘games lost.’
It’s ignoring data and context to assume that they’d have 35-50% of 500 plus (man games lost to injury) because of cap overages. It’s not true and it’s a misrepresenting what their cap issues were. Stone, Martinez, Pacioretty losing more than 50% of their seasons due to injury isnt cap manipulation or mismanagement, being forced into dressing a clearly injured Lehner as a backup is.
They lost a lot of very good players for big chunks of the season due to injuries. It doesn’t matter who you have in the AHL you can’t easily replace a Pacioretty or Stone.
My response at this point would be: what is more important, amount of man games, or the quality? You specifically point out a few players, but if it’s about the quality over quantity, that hurts your argument, because other teams also lost great players for extended periods.
I also would question how much of Stone and Martinez’s time missed was legitimately because of injury. I’m not saying they weren’t injured, but were they kept out longer than necessary to make the cap work? And if that’s the case, I’ll circle back again to my main point that has yet to be refuted: the injuries just exacerbated what was already the biggest issue, and that’s poor roster construction.
I think the point you’re trying to make is that, if all those players were healthy and playing, then they probably make the playoffs. You may be right, but what you’re ignoring is that because of terrible roster construction, it was never possible for all of those players to play together, anyway. The cap would not allow it. So, it’s a moot point. It was never going to happen.
I’ll make this easy – name one other team that had 90 or more points that lost over 120 games in 21-22 from three of their 20-21 top ten scorers or lost 80 games combined from their top two scorers in 20-21.
I’ll wait.
I mean, those are highly specific numbers so there obviously isn’t a direct corollary but the Pens lost 74 games combined from Crosby, Malkin, and Rust. The Caps lost 73 games from Oshie and Backstrom. The Kings lost 216 games from their top 6 defenseman, including 117 from their top two RHD. At no point in the season were they able to ice their top six D at the same time. I would say those are pretty important players.
And, again, you can call out all those numbers you want, but it doesn’t change anything. So I’ll reiterate: those injuries just exacerbated the main issue which is, say it with me, poor roster construction!
So no?
No, YOU’re ignoring the context. The context is that some of the guys you’re pushing lost games through cap management, that many of the guys who lost time were bottom-sixers, that Lehner didn’t lose all that many games and was replaced by a better goalie, and that a lot of teams had key players miss a lot of time.
Tin Man misses the playoffs again, eh?
The Eichel deal was a fiasco for Vegas. It has set them back years and hurt their initial progress. What a bone head move that was by management.
Eichel is entering his prime. If anything that extended the window.