Training Camp Notes: Stone, Biakabutuka, Mangiapane
Injury troubles plagued the Vegas Golden Knights last season, something they can ill-afford a repeat of in 2022-23. There’s some good news on that front regarding one of their star players, though, as right wing Mark Stone skated in a contact jersey today for the first time during training camp.
The Golden Knights will count on Stone to have a rebound year as their captain, especially with their offensive depth thinning. The 2021 Selke Trophy finalist and 2019 runner-up played in just 37 games due to injury last season, registering nine goals, 21 assists, and 30 points. Hopefully, the serious back injuries that plagued him last season don’t become a long-term issue for the 30-year-old.
- Somewhat of a rarity these days, a player attending camp on an amateur tryout might do well enough to earn a contract within the organization. Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen notes that the Red Wings have been impressed with defenseman Jérémie Biakabutuka, with head coach Derek Lalonde complimenting his skating and compete level. The 20-year-old is set to return to the QMJHL’s Charlottetown Islanders next season but could receive an NHL entry-level contract from Detroit or receive an AHL offer from the Grand Rapids Griffins when his season is over.
- Calgary Flames winger Andrew Mangiapane was a full participant in camp today after missing the first four days of group skates with what the team called a “minor lower-body injury.” He made his return to scrimmages skating on a line with newcomer Nazem Kadri, a role he’s likely to reprise in the regular season as well. Mangiapane is coming off a career-high 35 goals and 55 points.
Latest On Nic Hague
There are just a handful of restricted free agent negotiations still going on and at least one of them doesn’t appear to be headed to the finish line. According to Jeff Marek of Sportsnet, Nicolas Hague has left Vegas and will start training with the OHL’s Kitchener Rangers tomorrow, the junior team located in his hometown.
Hague, 23, has played 142 games in his NHL career to this point, but hasn’t yet cracked the 19-minute mark for average time on ice. That’s because of the huge minutes that players like Alex Pietrangelo and Shea Theodore log, keeping Hague buried deeper in the lineup than perhaps he could be somewhere else. With the Golden Knights also not in a place to spend much on a multi-year deal because of their cap situation, it’s a difficult needle to thread.
Still, skating with a junior team is certainly not NHL training camp, meaning whenever he does sign, Hague is going to be behind the rest of his competition. As we’ve seen in the past, players who miss training camp are usually slow starters. In the case of a player like William Nylander, who sat out the first part of the season, it was basically a lost year.
Generally, these negotiations are completed by the time the season starts, and with Vegas’ long-term injured reserve issues, they will have more flexibility just before training camp ends. But at this point, it doesn’t seem as though you’ll see the young defenseman on the ice with his teammates for a little while.
Vegas Golden Knights Need For Health Exacerbated By Salary Cap Crunch
Vegas Golden Knights head coach Bruce Cassidy said today that defenseman Alec Martinez missed today’s training camp sessions with an “upper-body tweak”, but he’s expected to return to practice tomorrow.
And while things like maintenance days usually aren’t big news, they are now for the Golden Knights, who will rely heavily on full health in 2022-23 after an injury-plagued 2021-22 season. Martinez himself missed a solid chunk of time last year, playing just 26 games and registering only eight points. A crucial part of their top four on defense, they’ll need Martinez at his best, especially if Nicolas Hague goes unsigned into the season.
With Vegas pressed tightly against the salary cap, even with Robin Lehner placed on long-term injured reserve, short-term injuries could become a cap management nuisance quite quickly. As they did last season, they’ll need to play a day-to-day game financially and have their players in AHL Henderson on speed dial.
As Hague remains unsigned, the team is especially thin on left defense. If Martinez gets hurt, the team’s next option to slot into the lineup is 23-year-old Zack Hayes, an undrafted free agent with only three games of NHL experience.
Golden Knights fans will be watching injury news like hawks as the preseason progresses. The team will begin their preseason schedule tomorrow against the Colorado Avalanche.
Vegas Golden Knights Activate Brett Howden, Reilly Smith Off Of IR
- A number of players have been officially activated off of injured-reserve today. Though many of these are not a surprise, some did come with question marks and in the wake of the recent injury updates around the league, particularly Sean Couturier of the Flyers, not everything can always be taken as a given. The Pittsburgh Penguins activated recently-signed forward Drake Caggiula (link). Moving out west, the Vancouver Canucks have activated forward Nils Hoglander and defenseman Tucker Poolman off of IR (link). In the desert, the Vegas Golden Knights activated forwards Brett Howden and Reilly Smith (link).
Buffalo Sabres To Name Captain Prior To Regular Season
The Buffalo Sabres haven’t officially had a captain since just prior to this season when they stripped the title from the injured Jack Eichel prior to an early-season trade to the Vegas Golden Knights. That year-long absence will come to an end soon, though, as newly-extended general manager Kevyn Adams told reporters today that the team will announce their leadership group for 2022-23, including a team captain, prior to the regular season.
As mentioned by The Buffalo News’ Lance Lysowski in the linked story above, veteran winger Kyle Okposo is the leading candidate for the role, supported by rumors over the offseason. Okposo had his best offensive year as a Sabre despite largely playing in a fourth-line role, cracking the 20-goal mark for the first time since 2015-16 and had 45 points, his highest total in a Sabres jersey. Forming solid chemistry with Zemgus Girgensons, also expected to be named an alternate captain as the longest-tenured Sabre, Okposo’s taken on a de facto leadership role and is becoming an integral part of the team’s voice.
While Okposo has been an alternate captain in Buffalo for the past five seasons, Alex Tuch also jumps out as an obvious candidate for the job. Acquired in the Eichel trade, the Buffalo native had 38 points in 50 games as a Sabre this past year and cemented himself as a top-six fixture.
Speaking today on the team’s leadership group, head coach Don Granato said the following:
I’ll just point out our three older, I think our three oldest guys, are Girgensons, Okposo and Craig Anderson. And they do a tremendous job. They have that presence. And they are in it, obviously, as competitors, but they really have a deep care for helping some other guys achieve more. They don’t fear that this guy might replace me. Which is very uncommon. Whether that is an unconscious thought, or a subconscious thought. Sometimes it’s hard for the older players to really, really help a guy who might replace them or take some ice time away from them. And those three guys there, they love it.
Nolan Patrick Will Not Play In 2022-23
The Vegas Golden Knights announced some training camp injuries today, listing Laurent Brossoit, Daniil Miromanov, Spencer Foo, and Jakub Demek as players who will miss training camp. Unfortunately, the list didn’t end there. Shea Weber, Robin Lehner, and Nolan Patrick have all been ruled out for the entire season.
While Weber and Lehner’s status had already been confirmed, this was only speculated about for Patrick, as he continues to deal with the issues that have plagued his career since the moment it began.
Selected second overall in the 2017 draft by the Philadelphia Flyers, Patrick has never played a full season in the NHL, and already missed an entire campaign in 2019-20 when he was dealing with migraines. The 24-year-old forward is so far behind in his development to this point that it is unclear whether his career will even continue, given another season down the drain.
Signed to a two-year, $2.4MM contract by the Golden Knights after they acquired him last summer, he will be a restricted free agent again in 2023. It is not at all certain that he will receive a qualifying offer, or where he will stand with the organization at that point.
A dominant junior player who used his size, strength, and skill to rack up goals and points with ease, he was supposed to be a two-way pivot in the league for years. After scoring 61 points through his first two seasons in the league, he has just 16 since the start of 2020-21.
While he is still relatively young, it’s hard to imagine Patrick ever becoming the player that many expected him to be after such a turbulent career to this point. He will be placed on long-term injured reserve, along with Weber and Lehner, opening up a little more cap flexibility for the Golden Knights.
Snapshots: Hague, Pastrnak, Jets
When Vegas Golden Knights training camp opens tomorrow morning, defenseman Nicolas Hague won’t be there as he awaits a new contract. The Athletic’s Jesse Granger reports that he isn’t expected to be on the ice with his teammates Thursday morning at City National Arena, the team’s practice facility.
Hague is one of the few remaining restricted free agents in the NHL, alongside Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Rasmus Sandin and Dallas Stars forward Jason Robertson as the marquee names. Granger expertly notes that Hague missing camp is more detrimental than in previous seasons, as new head coach Bruce Cassidy will be installing a completely foreign defensive system from what the Knights have been used to in past seasons. Hague, the 34th overall pick in 2017, had 14 points in 52 games last season.
- Speaking today during preseason media availability, Boston Bruins general manager Don Sweeney says it’s a priority for him to get pending free agent winger David Pastrnak signed as soon as possible. Pastrnak, while he’s expressed a strong desire to stay in Boston, hasn’t shared the same urgency in negotiations in previous reporting. Pastrnak, who’s notched 40 or more goals in his last two full seasons, will be in line for a substantial raise, and it may behoove Sweeney to get a deal done before his value rises even further.
- The Winnipeg Jets have made three scouting hires, including the first woman scout in team history, Sydney Daniels. Daniels joins the team as an NCAA scout, having previously served as the assistant coach for the women’s team at Harvard. The team also brought on Jari Kekalainen, brother of Columbus Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen, as a European scout, and former Toronto Maple Leafs scout Tony Martino as a USHL scout.
Mark Stone Expected To Be Ready For Camp
Everything appears to be going smoothly with Mark Stone‘s injury rehab, as head coach Bruce Cassidy told Jesse Granger of The Athletic that the Vegas Golden Knights captain is expected to be on the ice for the first day of training camp. Stone underwent back surgery in May after missing large chunks of the 2021-22 season.
Cassidy did admit that Stone may be limited by the team’s medical staff, but that his star winger feels great.
One of the biggest reasons that the Golden Knights missed the playoffs last season was the absence of Stone, who ended up playing just 37 games. Among the best defensive forwards in the game, and a top-5 Selke finalist for three years running, his ailing back kept moving him in and out of the lineup until he was finally shut down.
In those 37 games, Stone still managed to score nine goals and 30 points but averaged his lowest ice time since his rookie season. If fully healthy, he should be back in contention for the Selke and back to the point-per-game production he showed through his first two years in Vegas.
Given that the Golden Knights are dealing with a major injury to goaltender Robin Lehner and have some other holes popping up around their roster, the play of their stars will be even more important. Stone, Jack Eichel, Alex Pietrangelo, and Shea Theodore will have to be excellent for the team to get back to the postseason.
Latest On Nic Hague
While Jason Robertson takes most of the headlines regarding unsigned restricted free agents at this point, there are a number of other players still waiting to see if they’ll be under contract when training camp opens next week. One of those is Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Nic Hague, who, according to David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period on Thursday, was no closer to a deal. Hague is in Vegas but will likely return home if there is no deal at the start of camp, Pagnotta adds.
This isn’t a surprise, as the news all offseason has been pointing at a significant divide between the Golden Knights and the RFA defenseman. A week ago, reports emerged that the two sides had had “very little dialogue since early July.”
Like any negotiation, things can swing quickly with a single phone call. In this case specifically, it’s hard to see how sitting on the sidelines will benefit the 23-year-old.
Hague has played in 142 games through parts of three seasons, scoring ten goals and 14 points. But given the fact that the Golden Knights already have six defensemen signed to one-way contracts, and young players like Kaedan Korczak (or even junior superstar Lukas Cormier) ready to push for NHL minutes, there is a chance that the team will find ways to fill the lineup without him.
It’s that leverage, along with the fact that Vegas is perpetually in a salary cap crunch, that makes it a difficult situation for Hague. There is no one really doubting his talent but with relatively low offensive totals, a recent injury history, and the team’s financial situation, landing a multi-year deal for a significant raise seems unlikely.
As with any unsigned RFA, Hague will need to have a deal in place by December 1 in order to play this season.
Prospect Nicolas Guay Signed To Two-Year AHL Deal
- The Golden Knights have signed Patrick Guay to a two-year AHL contract per an announcement from their farm team in Henderson. The 20-year-old was selected in the fifth round back in July (145th overall) after a 104-point season and was expected to return to the QMJHL where his rights were traded to Blainville-Boisbriand back in July. Instead, Vegas will get a look at them in their system. The two-year term coincides with how long they have to sign him to an NHL deal as he’ll have to sign by June 1, 2024 or Guay will become an unrestricted free agent.