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Keegan Kolesar Returns To Lineup

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  • After being out since March 11th, the head of the Vegas Golden Knights, Bruce Cassidy, reports that Keegan Kolesar will be back in the lineup for tonight’s game. Although Kolesar does not usually generate a lot of offensive chances for the Golden Knights, the forward has thrown 240 hits so far this year, good for seventh overall throughout the entire league. As the Golden Knights are making their final push to return to the playoffs, Kolesar’s ability to throw the body is a valuable asset to employ come playoff time.

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  • After being out since March 11th, the head of the Vegas Golden Knights, Bruce Cassidy, reports that Keegan Kolesar will be back in the lineup for tonight’s game. Although Kolesar does not usually generate a lot of offensive chances for the Golden Knights, the forward has thrown 240 hits so far this year, good for seventh overall throughout the entire league. As the Golden Knights are making their final push to return to the playoffs, Kolesar’s ability to throw the body is a valuable asset to employ come playoff time.

Vegas Golden Knights Issue Injury Updates

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The Vegas Golden Knights will be without a trio of key players in a pivotal divisional matchup tomorrow against the Edmonton Oilers. The team announced that forward Reilly Smith and goalie Logan Thompson have left their road trip and returned to Vegas to be evaluated for injuries, while defenseman Alec Martinez has returned to Vegas for personal reasons.

Both Smith and Thompson left last night’s win against the Calgary Flames with injuries. Smith did not return to the game after taking a hit along the boards from Flames forward Walker Duehr, while Thompson left late in the third period with a lower-body injury, potentially reaggravating the ailment that had kept him out for almost 20 games. It’s not a good sign for either that they needed to depart the road trip early to receive evaluations.

They’ll also be without Martinez for an unknown length of time, which is no small absence. Martinez has been critical this season, recording 13 points in 67 games and leading the team with a +21 rating on the top pairing alongside Alex Pietrangelo. Smith has again been one of Vegas’ most consistent scorers, tallying 51 points in 71 games.

Vegas has a tough schedule ahead of them, with four of their next five games against the red-hot Edmonton Oilers and Minnesota Wild. They’ll need netminders Jonathan Quick and Laurent Brossoit, who’ve both been good for Vegas in limited samples this year, to carry their weight to keep Vegas’ cushion atop the Pacific Division.

Logan Thompson Leaves Game With Lower-Body Injury

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Despite a big win for the Vegas Golden Knights against a divisional rival last night, there was a concerning setback near the end of the game. Goalie Logan Thompson, who was making his first appearance in 18 games after being sidelined with a left leg injury, left the team’s 3-2 win against the Calgary Fames with a lower-body injury.

Thompson left the game with less than 10 minutes remaining after making 37 saves on 39 shots. He was replaced by Jonathan Quick, who stopped all five shots he faced, helping the Golden Knights extend their lead atop the Western Conference. The team has not yet issued an update on Thompson’s status, but it’s something to watch out for in the coming days as the Pacific Division leaders approach the playoffs without the full health of their starter. It’s worth noting that in Thompson’s absence, Quick has been much-improved since joining the Golden Knights, posting a 5-1-0 record and a .908 save percentage.

Nicolas Roy Activated From IR

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  • Nicolas Roy, meanwhile, has been activated from injured reserve for the Vegas Golden Knights and will be available to them tonight against the Calgary Flames. Roy last played on February 21 and gives the Golden Knights another interesting forward option that can play up and down the lineup.

Jonathan Quick Moves Into Second Place On All-Time American Wins List

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The NHLPA Player Poll has become a yearly fixture, giving fans an insight into what players have to say in popular public debates. This year’s edition dropped this morning with mostly expected results.

Tampa Bay Lightning netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy was voted by a wide margin as the goalie players would want in net with one game on the line for the second straight season, while the Colorado Avalanche’s Cale Makar was voted best defenseman in the league by a landslide. Connor McDavid won “most impactful forward in a must-win game,” no doubt buoyed by last year’s electric playoff performance. Other winners were Patrick Kane for best stick-handler, Leon Draisaitl for best passer, Sidney Crosby for most complete player, Brad Marchand for least enjoy playing against (but want on your team), Joe Pavelski for most effective net-front player, and Aleksander Barkov for most underrated. Marie-Philip Poulin was also voted as the women’s hockey player that NHL players would most like to play alongside, past or present, and the Bell Centre was voted as having the best ice in the NHL for the fifth time.

In off-ice results, Las Vegas was voted the best road city to have an off day, Marc-Andre Fleury was voted best locker room presence, and Auston Matthews was voted as having the best shoe game.

More notes from around the NHL this morning:

  • Now a Vegas Golden Knight, Stanley Cup-winning netminder Jonathan Quick continues to move up the all-time ranks. With last night’s road win against the Vancouver Canucks, Quick moved into sole possession of second place on the all-time wins list for American-born goaltenders, trailing only Ryan Miller. Quick now sits just 16 wins back of tying the all-time record with 375 wins under his belt.
  • In some rare positive injury news for the Montreal Canadiens this season, Jake Evans has returned to practice in a full-contact jersey, while Jesse Ylonen has returned to practice after missing the team’s last game with an illness, per TVA’s Renaud Lavoie. Ylonen hasn’t looked out of place in his first extended NHL look this season, recording five goals and 12 points in 29 games. Evans is nearing a return after missing over two months with a lower-body injury.

Latest On Vegas Golden Knights Goaltenders

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While the Vegas Golden Knights have maintained their place in contention for the Pacific Division title this season, it hasn’t been an easy road for them, especially in the crease. Injuries to the team’s stable of goaltenders (starting way back over the summer when Robin Lehner underwent hip surgery) forced them to acquire the legendary Jonathan Quick from the Columbus Blue Jackets and has also forced Jiri Patera, who spent time in the ECHL last season, to make two starts. Thankfully for Vegas, though, it seems there could be a light at the end of the tunnel when it comes to the health of their goaltenders.

As relayed by Ben Gotz of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Golden Knights head coach Bruce Cassidy has revealed that all three of Quick,  Logan Thompson, and Laurent Brossoit are traveling with the team on their three-game road trip. As a result of that trio nearing a return to the ice, the team sent Patera back to their AHL affiliate, the Henderson Silver Knights. The return of Thompson in particular would come as a major boost to Vegas, as he had been the team’s number-one goalie before going down with an injury. He has posted a .914 save percentage in 36 games, and should he hit the ground running upon his return to the ice is in pole position to be the team’s playoff starter.

Goalie Notes: Thompson, Brossoit, Skinner, Brkin

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As the Vegas Golden Knights took the ice for practice this morning, injured goalies Logan Thompson and Laurent Brossoit participated with the team. After a short media availability, Jesse Granger of The Athletic mentions that head coach Bruce Cassidy remains cautious on both, but that he expects both of the goalies to travel with the team in their upcoming western Canadian road trip.

Posting almost identical numbers to his first season in the NHL last year, Thompson has appeared in 36 games, going 20-13-3 with a .914 SV% and a 2.66 GAA. Brossoit on the other hand, seemingly injured for the entire season so far, has only appeared in three contests, going 1-0-2 with a .936 SV% and a 2.20 GAA. Although for most teams it would be a welcome return to have these goaltenders back in the lineup, recent trade acquisition Jonathan Quick has given the Knights a good problem to have. In 31 games this season for the Los Angeles Kings, Quick went 11-13-4 with a .876 SV% and a 3.50 GAA. Since coming over to Las Vegas, Quick has made five appearances, producing a record of 4-1-0, posting a .904 SV% and a 2.98 GAA.

Other notes:

  • After the Edmonton Oilers defeated the Seattle Kraken earlier today, the NHL announced that after securing the 29th win of his career, Stuart Skinner has broken an Oilers’ rookie goalie record, which was previously held by Oilers’ legend Grant Fuhr. After signing goaltender Jack Campbell to a 5-year, $25MM contract this past offseason, Skinner has seemingly come out of nowhere to take the net in Edmonton. This season specifically, Skinner has gone 21-14-4 in 41 appearances, producing a save percentage of .912, and a goals-against average of 2.87.
  • In correspondence with the recall of goaltender Zachary Fucale, the Hershey Bears have announced that they have signed Bailey Brkin to a professional tryout contract. Spending this season with the Iowa Heartlanders, the Wheeling Nailers, and the Reading Royals of the ECHL, Brkin has posted an overall record of 10-14-4.

Upper-Body Injury For Keegan Kolesar

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  • The Golden Knights announced (Twitter link) that winger Keegan Kolesar is listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury. The 25-year-old is fifth in the NHL in hits this season with 240 while chipping in with 16 points in 64 games.  Pavel Dorofeyev suited up in Kolesar’s absence against St. Louis after being recalled yesterday and picked up his first career point.

Barbashev Making An Early Impact For Vegas

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  • While his acquisition largely flew under the radar with more prominent names being moved, forward Ivan Barbashev might wind up being the best deadline acquisition, posits SinBinVegas’ Jason Pothier. The Golden Knights parted with 2021 first-round pick Zach Dean to pick up the 27-year-old pending UFA and Barbashev has fit in quite well, notching five points in six games with his new team.  More importantly, he has shown some early chemistry on the top line in the place of injured captain Mark Stone and if he’s able to hold down that spot on the depth chart, he should certainly be at least one of the most impactful pickups from the trade deadline activity.

Vegas Golden Knights Recall Jiri Patera

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The goaltending pipeline in Vegas is getting awfully thin. The Golden Knights have recalled Jiri Patera under emergency conditions, after Adin Hill suffered a lower-body injury.

That leaves the Golden Knights with Jonathan Quick and Patera as their healthy tandem, with Hill, Logan Thompson, Robin Lehner, and Laurent Brossoit all injured. Michael Hutchinson was traded out at the deadline, and the only other goalie under an NHL contract in the organization is 22-year-old Isaiah Saville, who has ten professional appearances above the ECHL.

It is the Henderson Silver Knights who are in even more trouble. Behind Saville, there is nothing but 50-year-old goaltending coach Fred Brathwaite, who dressed as the backup last night after signing an AHL PTO.

Somehow, even through all of this, the Golden Knights remain in first place for the time being. The club visits the Tampa Bay Lightning tonight, before traveling to Carolina, St. Louis, and Philadelphia to finish out the road trip. Those two middle games, against the Hurricanes and Blues, are a back-to-back situation over the weekend, meaning Patera may have to make his NHL debut.

The 24-year-old netminder has a .916 save percentage in 27 games for the Silver Knights this season.

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