Reilly Smith Added To COVID Protocol
The Vegas Golden Knights have made several transactions, not the least of which was placing Reilly Smith in the COVID protocol. Smith is unavailable for tonight’s game against the Washington Capitals. Jake Leschyshyn, Jonas Rondbjerg, and Daniil Miromanov have been recalled from the AHL.
Smith, 30, has been the focus of plenty of trade speculation in recent weeks because of the tight cap situation the Golden Knights will find themselves in when Jack Eichel returns and his status as a pending free agent. The veteran forward will hit the open market in the summer if he fails to sign an extension, as his five-year, $25MM deal expires at the end of 2021-22.
He’ll miss a chance to add to his 29 points in 40 games tonight when the Golden Knights take on the Capitals, and likely will miss another chance to face his former team in Florida later this week. With a game against the Carolina Hurricanes in between and a trip to Tampa Bay to face the Lighting on the weekend, it’s certainly not the ideal road trip to lose a top forward.
Brendan Brisson Leads Golden Knights Prospect Ranking
- Scott Wheeler of The Athletic continued his prospect pool rankings with the Vegas Golden Knights at No 22, but noted that this is the first team in what he would call the third tier, closer to the middle third of the league than the bottom. With no Peyton Krebs to take the top spot after he was sent to Buffalo in the Jack Eichel deal, Brendan Brisson of the University of Michigan sits first for the Golden Knights. Brisson is one of several Wolverines that will be suiting up for Team USA at the upcoming Olympics, an impressive accomplishment for a player that nearly slipped out of the first round two years ago. In 2020, Brisson was selected 29th overall by the Golden Knights and has followed that draft with two very strong college seasons.
Stone, Hague Added To Protocol; Pacioretty Nearing Return
The Vegas Golden Knights had a few absences and one notable addition to the morning skate today, as both Mark Stone and Nicolas Hague were missing due to COVID protocols. Neither will play tonight against the Montreal Canadiens, according to Jesse Granger of The Athletic. Still, it wasn’t all bad news as Max Pacioretty was on the ice taking part and will travel with the team–and could even play–on their upcoming road trip. Vegas heads to Washington for a match on Monday, the first in a four-game road trip.
Losing Stone is obviously a huge blow, as the 29-year-old is arguably the team’s most important forward. Named captain just over a year ago, the two-way winger brings point-per-game production while being one of the most celebrated defensive players in the league. He’s finished in the top five for Selke Trophy voting in each of the last three seasons, including being a finalist in the shortened 2020-21 campaign. With seven goals and 26 points in 23 games this season he’s off to another strong start, even with the missed time due to injury.
Hague too is an important piece, though he was already out with an injury and hasn’t played since December. The 6’6″ defenseman has developed into a reliable option for the Golden Knights, averaging more than 18 minutes a night behind the team’s top options. In 32 games Hague has even collected 13 points, all of them coming at even-strength.
It’s Pacioretty’s appearance that will raise some eyebrows though, as the Golden Knights continue to approach a tricky cap situation. Jack Eichel is skating and scheduled to return to the lineup in another month or so, by which point the team will need some extra cap space to activate him. Pacioretty’s injury would have afforded them some additional time if he was still out when Eichel returned, but that obviously won’t be the case if he’s ready to play on the upcoming road trip. The 33-year-old winger scored 12 goals and 21 points in his first 16 games, but underwent wrist surgery in December. At that point he was ruled out indefinitely; now just three weeks later he appears on the brink of a return.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
What Your Team Is Thankful For: Vegas Golden Knights
In the spirit of the holiday season, PHR will take a look at what teams are thankful for as the season approaches the midway mark. There also might be a few things your team would like down the road. We’ll examine what’s gone well in the early going and what could improve as the season rolls on for the Vegas Golden Knights.
What are the Golden Knights thankful for?
Fearless management and excellent pro scouts.
If there’s one thing that George McPhee and Kelly McCrimmon have proven since the Golden Knights came into the league in 2017, it’s that they are willing to make a big splash. Be it through trade–Mark Stone, Max Pacioretty, Robin Lehner, and Jack Eichel–or free agency–Alex Pietrangelo–they haven’t been afraid to go after the top available names.
But even though McPhee and McCrimmon may get the press, it’s been the pro scouting for Vegas that has been so impressive so far. Even moving past the exceptional job they did by identifying underutilized players like William Karlsson in the expansion draft, the case of Chandler Stephenson stands out as a huge example of why Vegas has been so successful.
Acquired from the Washington Capitals in late 2019 for a fifth-round pick, Stephenson was nothing more than a part-time bottom-six option. He had just three goals and four points in 24 games for the Capitals that season, but almost immediately found success in an increased role with Vegas. The team quickly extended him to a four-year deal, knowing they had a bargain on their hands. This season, Stephenson is proving he can be a legitimate top-line option, scoring 36 points through 38 games while averaging more than 19 minutes a game. Not bad for a 2021 fifth-round pick.
Who are the Golden Knights thankful for?
Speaking of pro scouting, another incredible success story in Vegas was the acquisition and subsequent extension of Theodore. Acquired from the Anaheim Ducks for expansion draft considerations–the Golden Knights would end up selecting Clayton Stoner‘s contract–Theodore arrived in Vegas with only 55 NHL games under his belt. He passed that number in the first year with the Golden Knights and the organization wasted no time locking him up.
He’s not the only difference-making defender the Golden Knights have, but while Pietrangelo costs $8.8MM per season and will turn 32 in a few days, Theodore carries a cap hit of just $5.2MM through the 2024-25 season and is squarely in his prime at 26. Since the start of 2018-19, his first season without any time in the minor leagues, Theodore ranks ninth among all NHL defensemen in points.
What would the Golden Knights be even more thankful for?
A strong second half from Robin Lehner.
When the Golden Knights were forced to move Marc-Andre Fleury last summer in order to create cap space, the reaction among the fanbase was not good. A ton of pressure was put on Lehner to take over as the full-time starter, and though he hasn’t failed exactly, it’s not going great. The 30-year-old netminder is actually having the worst season of his career in terms of save percentage, notching a .905 through his first 27 appearances.
While that’s still been good enough to record 15 wins with the strong Golden Knights team, and Lehner has been a bit better of late, a strong second half could put this team over the top. Remember, this is a goaltender had a .923 over the last three seasons and has twice taken home the Jennings Trophy as part of the tandem with the lowest goals-against-average.
What should be on the Golden Knights’ wish list?
Some cheap cap relief.
Frankly, there’s not much that the Golden Knights can actually add to their team at the deadline because of the cap situation they find themselves in. With Eichel approaching a return they will actually likely have to shed salary at some point, meaning the most important thing now will be getting something of value in return for whatever they have to send packing. Whether it’s Reilly Smith, Evgenii Dadonov, or something else, other general managers will certainly have all the leverage in negotiations.
Still, Pacioretty’s injury buys the team some time to work and the pieces they might decide to shed are still valuable players. From a front office that has worked out complex trades in the past, getting out of a little cap trouble doesn’t seem like that big of an issue.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Alec Martinez Has Recovered From Upper-Body Injury, COVID Protocol Stint To Last Longer Than Five Days
It appears that the Golden Knights will soon be getting a key defenseman back in their lineup. In an interview with SinBin.Vegas (audio link), owner Bill Foley indicated that Alec Martinez was nearing a return had it not been for the veteran contracting COVID-19. Martinez has been out since mid-November with an upper-body injury and is expected to miss at least ten days due to his protocol placement, meaning it’s not an asymptomatic case so he won’t return until the middle of next week at the earliest. Martinez and his $5.25MM AAV are currently on LTIR and Vegas will likely need to transfer winger Max Pacioretty onto LTIR in order to activate the blueliner back onto the active roster.
USA Hockey Notes: Sanderson, Beniers, Brisson
Ahead of USA Hockey’s roster unveiling tomorrow of the 25-man contingent that will head to Beijing for the 2022 Winter Olympics, a few names of players named to the team are leaking today. Per the Grand Forks Herald’s Brad Elliott Schlossman, one of those players is University of North Dakota defenseman (and Ottawa Senators prospect) Jake Sanderson. Sanderson, the fifth overall pick in 2020, has 22 points through 17 games as an assistant captain at UND. He’ll undoubtedly be a huge part of Team USA’s blueline in Beijing.
More Olympic notes for USA Hockey:
- Seattle Kraken prospect Matty Beniers will also be on the final roster, The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler reports. The 6’1″, 174-lb center is enjoying a great sophomore season at the University of Michigan with 26 points in 22 games. He’ll also likely be one of the team’s big go-to players without NHL talent on the team.
- A second University of Michigan player will be going, per Wheeler — Vegas Golden Knights pick Brendan Brisson. The team’s 29th overall pick in 2020 has 27 points in 23 games there this year, and while he might not play as prominent a role as Beniers on the team, he’s a great two-way center who should be a great energy player for Team USA.
Golden Knights Place Three In COVID Protocol
Add Vegas to the list of teams that are now missing players due to COVID protocol as the team announced (Twitter link) that defenseman Shea Theodore and centers Nicolas Roy and Nolan Patrick have all entered COVID protocol. Assuming these are for confirmed positive tests, they’ll be out for at least the next five days.
Theodore has been a key part of the back end for the Golden Knights this season and is off to a strong start offensively with 25 points in 35 games. Roy is also off to a career-best start with 19 points in 35 contests, already surpassing his previous high in points which is a great start to his contract year. As for Patrick, he only recently returned from an upper-body injury that cost him 29 games and while this is only a short-term setback, he has unfortunately had a lot of setbacks in recent years.
Taking their spots on the active roster for the time being are blueliner Daniil Miromanov, center Jake Leschyshyn, and winger Jonas Rondbjerg. All three have spent time with Vegas – Leschyshyn playing the most having suited up in 19 games – and will now be called upon for tonight’s game against Toronto. While Adam Brooks was eligible to be recalled from his conditioning stint in Henderson, they’ve elected to leave him there a little longer.
Jack Eichel Returns To Practice
Jack Eichel was on the ice at practice today for the Vegas Golden Knights, not even two months since undergoing artificial disk replacement surgery. At the time, Eichel was given a three-month recovery timeline and when speaking with the media today, he said he feels like everything is going well.
With Max Pacioretty out, the Golden Knights have options for how to play the cap when Eichel is ready to return. It could still precipitate a trade of some sort, but suddenly a first-place Vegas squad appears to be close to adding a top-line center to the mix. Eichel hasn’t played since March 7, 2021, but scored 355 points in his first 375 games in the league.
Lucas Elvenes Claimed By Anaheim Ducks
Jan 11: Perhaps even more surprisingly, the Anaheim Ducks have actually claimed Elvenes, according to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. That would mean his contract will not be terminated and he will not be able to pursue an opportunity back in Sweden at this time.
Jan 10: In a surprising move, the Vegas Golden Knights have placed Lucas Elvenes on unconditional waivers for the purpose of a contract termination, according to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. Elvenes is in the final year of his entry-level contract and would have been a restricted free agent in the summer. This move will make him an unrestricted free agent, potentially opening a return to Sweden or another overseas league.
While contract terminations do happen from time to time, this one is surprising only because of Elvenes’ success in the minor leagues for the Golden Knights organization. Selected in the fifth round of the team’s inaugural draft, the Swedish forward eventually came to North America to make his debut in 2019. In 59 games as a rookie for the Chicago Wolves, he scored 48 points and went to the AHL All-Star Game.
In the years since Elvenes has racked up 34 points in 57 games, but just two of his 20 career AHL goals have come this season. Perhaps it’s that diminishing offensive performance that has him looking for a fresh start, or simply the fact that he hasn’t earned a single call-up to this point.
Now 22, Elvenes will still be a player to watch in the coming years even if he returns to Europe for the rest of this season. A successful SHL player even before he came to the Golden Knights organization, he will likely pique the interest of an NHL team down the road.
Vegas Golden Knights Assign Adam Brooks To AHL On Conditioning Loan
Per CapFriendly, the Vegas Golden Knights assigned forward Adam Brooks to the AHL’s Henderson Silver Knights on a conditioning loan today.
Brooks has played just seven games since Vegas claimed him off waivers from the Montreal Canadiens on November 17. In those seven games, he has two goals, adding onto his one assist in four games with the Canadiens prior to the claim.
Vegas is Brooks’ third team in a very short span of time. He was a waiver-wire addition to the Canadiens as well, who claimed him from the Toronto Maple Leafs prior to the start of the season.
It should be Brooks’ first AHL action since 2020-21, where he had 13 points in 17 games with the Toronto Marlies. He’s a very capable producer at the minor-league level, and in the short term, he should provide a boost to the Vegas farm team.