Coaching Notes: DeBoer, Vigneault, Boucher
With just four teams left vying for Lord Stanley’s Cup, the focus is strong on building next season’s roster for most NHL teams. That includes the coaching carousel, which will be active with many big names available this offseason. The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun took a wide-angle lens look around the list of coaching free agents to examine where each could end up moving forward.
One of the coaches named is Peter DeBoer, fired by the Vegas Golden Knights last month after the team missed the playoffs for the first time in franchise history. However, LeBrun notes that while he’s one of the biggest names available, it’s not a sure thing he’ll start the season behind an NHL bench. DeBoer is still owed money for the last year of his Vegas contract, something LeBrun says will allow him the flexibility to take his time on deciding. He surmises that a mid-season hire could be likely for a team looking to make a change after a poor start, but stops short of counting out DeBoer signing full-on with a team before the start of the 2022-23 season.
- LeBrun says that the “odds are” Alain Vigneault‘s NHL coaching career is done. Vigneault will still be paid by the Flyers through June of 2024, so finances aren’t a factor for Vigneault in the short term. LeBrun notes that he’ll be 63 when that contract is over. With 1,363 games under his belt as a head coach and no Stanley Cup, it’s unclear how many offers he’ll get anyways.
- One wild card name mentioned by LeBrun as a potential offseason hire is Guy Boucher. While he’s been out of a job since 2019, he has a “get rich quick” reputation around the league as a coach who brings short, but immediate success to his new team (2011 Tampa Bay Lightning, 2017 Ottawa Senators). Boucher had been holding out on taking NHL jobs for family reasons, but LeBrun says he’s now ready to get back in the picture.
Laurent Brossoit Undergoes Hip Surgery
- Injuries proved fatal for the Golden Knights this past season, as the team missed the playoffs for the first time in their franchise’s history. One of the Golden Knights still dealing with an injury is goaltender Laurent Brossoit. Sportsnet’s Jeff Marek reports that Brossoit had hip surgery and that the team is “hoping” that he will be available for the start of next season. With starter Robin Lehner already recovering from his own surgery and the late-season breakout of Logan Thompson in mind, it’s clear that Vegas’ future in net is anything but settled.
Vegas Golden Knights Interested In Barry Trotz
Barry Trotz is the hottest name on the coaching market right now. The Winnipeg Jets have already interviewed him, and we previously covered that the Chicago Blackhawks and Philadelphia Flyers have interest in Trotz as well. Along with those teams, you can add two more organizations into the mix. According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, Trotz’s list of suitors is “expected to include” the Vegas Golden Knights and Detroit Red Wings.
Both Vegas and Detroit recently fired their coaches, though that’s about where the similarities end between the two franchises. The Golden Knights are an organization with sky-high aspirations and a roster equipped for long playoff runs. The Red Wings, on the other hand, are just beginning to emerge from a rebuild and have a roster with some young stars such as Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond but also enough flaws to keep them from being widely seen as a true contender. With these two teams now in the chase for Trotz, it seems that he will have the pick of the litter when it comes to where he will work next. As one of the most widely respected individuals in hockey, Trotz’s choice will likely say a lot about the direction of the franchise he chooses and be a reason for optimism for that team’s fanbase.
Looking At The Impending Vegas Cap Crunch
To say the 2021-22 season was a gigantic disappointment for the Vegas Golden Knights would also be a massive understatement. After mortgaging a large part of their future to acquire superstar center Jack Eichel, albeit for the long term, the team missed the playoffs for the first time in franchise history and fired head coach Peter DeBoer earlier this week.
Now, general manager Kelly McCrimmon has an arduous offseason to retool the roster and find a new head coach. Both will need significant attention, however, the Knights are already entering free agency with the pressing need to shed cap space. With a roster size of 23, the team is already in a salary deficit of about $500,000, even with the small cap increase to $82.5MM next year (CapFriendly).
While some of those players may be sent to AHL Henderson when the team is fully healthy, the team needs to make a decision on RFAs Nicolas Roy, Brett Howden, Keegan Kolesar, and Nicolas Hague, who have all been extremely valuable to the team in their depth roles. It’s clear that unless the Knights somehow make a move to acquire significant long-term injury relief (Shea Weber?), the team needs to move on from a decent chunk of cash to be comfortable under the cap in 2022-23.
Obviously, the choice that jumps off the page is forward Evgenii Dadonov. Signed just through next season at $5MM, the veteran forward was already involved in a trade intended to dump his salary but was reversed due to his limited no-trade clause. He did hit the 20-goal mark again this year and could do so again if given good support. It’s a low-risk acquisition for teams looking for scoring depth, especially with his contract expiring at the end of the year. However, Vegas has absolutely no leverage in this situation given the failed trade in March. If that incident didn’t happen, the Knights could probably have made a decent deal involving Dadonov this offseason. They’ll likely still be able to make a trade, but it won’t involve much benefit for the team other than cap space.
Another potential option is William Karlsson. Given his offensive upside and defensive acumen, teams would probably like to have a top-six centerman under a $6MM cap hit. With the Eichel acquisition and solid play from the cheaper Chandler Stephenson, there is no longer a pressing need for Karlsson in the lineup. He had a very tough season putting pucks in the net, though, and his 40-goal 2017-18 campaign seems like decades ago for him now. He’s scored just 15, 14, and 12 goals in the past three years, and while he still puts up points, he’s signed through 2027. It would clear a tad more cap space than Dadonov, though, and the wing is more a position of need for the Knights. Yet, the relationship between Dadonov and the Knights must be considered. If the relationship is irreparably severed, the team might have no choice. That’s not to say they still couldn’t entertain the idea of moving Karlsson, however.
Lastly, there’s backup netminder Laurent Brossoit and his $2.3MM cap hit. He’s almost surely gone considering the incredibly strong play of youngster Logan Thompson down the stretch. It’s not much cap relief, though, and the team likely needs a little more wiggle room to adjust the roster as desired.
Vegas Golden Knights Announce ECHL Affiliation
The Vegas Golden Knights have a new ECHL affiliate, after announcing an agreement with the Savannah Ghost Pirates. The new franchise will begin play in the 2022-23 season after originally being announced in October 2021. In addition to the affiliation, the Ghost Pirates have also announced the first coach in franchise history, hiring Rick Bennett.
Golden Knights general manager Kelly McCrimmon released a short statement:
This affiliation with Savannah gives us alignment from the ECHL level through Henderson and up to the NHL. We are excited to lead the hockey operations and have a proven developer of talent as a head coach in Rick Bennett.
Bennett, 54, had been the head coach of Union Collee for more than a decade before resigning earlier this year, and won a National Championship in 2014 with the program. He also took home the NCAA Coach of the Year award that season and even has some previous experience coaching in the ECHL. That came when he was a player-coach with the Jacksonville Lizard Kings in the late-nineties, as his playing career came close to an end. A veteran of more than 250 ECHL contests as a player, he also had a cup of coffee in the NHL with the New York Rangers.
While the Ghost Pirates won’t have a ton of real NHL prospects, the ECHL is often used as a goaltending development stop. Jiri Patera, for instance, played 15 games for the Fort Wayne Komets this season, between stints with the Henderson Silver Knights.
Mark Stone Undergoes Back Surgery
May 19: The Golden Knights have announced that Stone underwent a successful lumbar discectomy this morning and is expected to be ready to play for the start of the 2022-23 season.
May 18: After previously indicating that surgery was the most likely outcome, the Vegas Golden Knights have confirmed through a spokesperson that captain Mark Stone will undergo a procedure on his back tomorrow, according to Danny Webster of the Las Vegas Sun. On Monday, general manager Kelly McCrimmon said that the team still expects Stone to be ready for training camp next season. No timeline has been updated today.
Stone, one of the most impressive two-way players in the entire NHL, and arguably the most important name on the Golden Knights roster, battled injury all season. With four stints on injured reserve, two of those being of the long-term variety, he was limited to just 37 games and recorded his worst offensive season with just nine goals and 30 points.
Those stints on long-term injured reserve were often critiqued because of the salary cap situation the Golden Knights found themselves in, but there was no mistaking Stone’s obvious injury. A shell of himself even when he was on the active roster, he will now have to focus on getting back to full strength in time for next season, when the feeling in Vegas will once again be playoffs-or-bust.
The question now becomes how the Golden Knights will address their current cap issues, as after acquiring Jack Eichel, the team has already eclipsed the $82.5MM ceiling for next season. Names like Reilly Smith and Mattias Janmark are pending unrestricted free agents, but other players are likely going to have to be extracted from the roster in one way or another to make all of the pieces fit. Add in the uncertainty surrounding some key players that will be returning from offseason surgery–Robin Lehner also went under the knife for a shoulder procedure earlier this month–and the Golden Knights are no sure thing to return to the postseason in 2022-23.
Vegas Golden Knights Will Host A 2022 Development Camp
- The Vegas Golden Knights will host a prospect development camp this year, says GM Kelly McCrimmon (link). This will be the first true development camp the team has held since 2019. McCrimmon said that the camp will begin on the Monday following the NHL Entry Draft, which will be held on Thursday, July 7 and Friday, July 8th in Montreal. This year’s camp should give Vegas a good look at not only the players they drafted in the 2022 draft, but also some insight into who might be able to compete for a roster spot in training camp. With Vegas near the league’s salary cap ceiling, finding affordable young talent within their system will be a key to success in the 2022-23 season.
Mark Stone "Most Likely" Will Undergo Back Surgery
Today has been a big day for news surrounding the Vegas Golden Knights, with coach Pete DeBoer being relieved of his duties this morning. That run of news now continues thanks to GM Kelly McCrimmon’s press conference today, where he revealed that captain Mark Stone, who battled injuries all year, would “most likely” be undergoing back surgery this offseason. McCrimmon did note that they expect Stone to be ready for training camp this fall, but this is nonetheless unwelcome news for a team looking to rebound from the most disappointing season in the history of their young franchise.
Stone, who just turned 30, struggled to stay healthy this season and only managed to get into 37 games. Stone’s back injury bothered him all season, leading to his placement on long-term injured reserve in early February. Stone did eventually return from LTIR in order to help the Golden Knights in their ultimately unsuccessful playoff push, but it now seems likely that his late-season activation from LTIR was more about trying to keep the team’s playoff hopes alive than it was about Stone’s back being fully recovered. If the cap-strapped Golden Knights have any hope of returning to contention next season, getting their captain back to 100% health should be a top priority, and it seems that they have elected a back surgery as the best way for Stone to get there.
Vegas Golden Knights Fire Peter DeBoer
6:07 pm: Per the Golden Knights, assistant coaches Ryan Craig and Misha Donskov will remain on the team’s staff for next season. Goaltending Coach Mike Rosati has not been let go, but will interview with the new coaching staff once they are hired (link).
2:33 PM: As reported by TSN’s Darren Dreger, two Golden Knights assistant coaches, Steve Spott and Ryan McGill, have also been let go by the team.
11:02 AM: The Vegas Golden Knights announced Monday morning that the team has fired head coach Peter DeBoer.
General manager Kelly McCrimmon will meet with the media at 3:00 p.m. CT to address the firing. He said the following in a statement today:
After lengthy discussions over the last two weeks, we believe that a new coach will put us in the best position to succeed next season.
DeBoer was appointed as the Golden Knights’ head coach midway through 2019-20 after the team fired Gerard Gallant due to a sluggish start. Through his two-and-a-half seasons in Vegas, DeBoer guided the team to a 98-50-12 record in 160 games (.650 points percentage). DeBoer had one year remaining on his contract, paying him $3.25MM.
His firing comes after the Golden Knights missed the playoffs this season for the first time in franchise history, dropping a series of key games down the stretch with a 4-2-4 record in their final 10 games. Some will be quick to defend DeBoer as the team suffered a laundry list of injuries to star players throughout the season, including captain Mark Stone, sniper Max Pacioretty, defenseman Alec Martinez, and starting netminder Robin Lehner.
However, while the Golden Knights still managed to generate chances offensively despite the injuries to key scorers, defense and special teams were where the team struggled the most this season. The team finished below league average on both the power play and penalty kill, and stellar play at the end of the season from youngster Logan Thompson in goal helped cover up some of the defensive shortcomings the team had developed throughout the year.
Vegas will need to do more than to just find a new bench boss for next season, though. The team is already in the red in terms of salary cap space, boasting a projected cap hit of $83.1MM for 2022-3. The team won’t be able to re-sign any pending UFAs to NHL deals (which include Reilly Smith and Mattias Janmark) and will likely need to shed another contract in order to become cap-compliant and reallocate a small amount of money in free agency. Moving forward, the team will need to count on a healthy and productive trio of Jack Eichel, Pacioretty, and Stone to avoid another disappointing season.
TSN’s Darren Dreger was the first to report.
Snapshots: Eichel, Forsberg, First Overall Pick
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.