The Vegas Golden Knights Have Added an Entire 1st Line in Just 9 months

[matt trick]

Last year against I believe there was a Vegas that Tomas Hertl had more HDCF than the entire Vegas team. In this series he has a few flashes but the frequency with which Stone picks his pocket has rendered him largely ineffective.

I wanted Wilson to throw everything else at Stone, as I believe he is a top 5-10 winger. It's been three games, but I think he's in thay top 5 and a playoff player to boot.

Separately, Martin Jones sucks

 

[Skinnyjimmy08]

This is what good GMs do.. This team is set for many years

 

[danielpalfredsson]

It's not entirely fair to compare Vegas to every other team. Most teams aren't the blank slate Vegas was, and aren't in a position to add in the way Vegas did.

1) Vegas had complete cap flexibility, which is extremely rare.
2) The rules of the expansion draft provided them with a wealth of futures. They were so deep in assets that they were able to go in three different times and give up big packages for top 6 players via trade, and even after that, they still are relatively deep with picks and prospects.

#2 took McPhee doing a great job with expansion. These aren't meant as knocks at Vegas or a "omg they got too much in expansion" take. The take is, Vegas was able to add so much because they had a blank slate, and it's pretty rare for a team in today's NHL or sports to be in that position.

As far as having a blank slate, the only other team I can think of right now in a comparable position both cap and asset wise is (funnily enough) the Senators, and it's questionable about whether ownership is committed enough to take advantage of that blank slate both through spending to the cap and by spending on a front office with the depth of experience that would make them capable enough to make some of the moves Vegas has made.

 

[DudeWhereIsMakar]

I don't even know who their first line truly is.
Because last year it was strictly Smith-Karlsson-Marchessault.
But now is it officially Pacioretty-Stastny-Stone?
Next year there could also be a line of Gusev-Glass-Tuch, and I believe Glass will be rookie of the year next season. But I also do think Glass makes it because they'll have to trade Eakin and Haula to make room, Glass has no cap hit plus I think he's ready for the NHL.
Otherwise, there could be three first lines next season.

 

[57special]

Crazy that they are exempt from the Seattle expansion. That was a masterful negotiation.

They also don't get any $$ from Seattle. Let's tell the whole story, here.

 

[justafan22]

It's not entirely fair to compare Vegas to every other team. Most teams aren't the blank slate Vegas was, and aren't in a position to add in the way Vegas did.

1) Vegas had complete cap flexibility, which is extremely rare.
2) The rules of the expansion draft provided them with a wealth of futures. They were so deep in assets that they were able to go in three different times and give up big packages for top 6 players via trade, and even after that, they still are relatively deep with picks and prospects.

#2 took McPhee doing a great job with expansion. These aren't meant as knocks at Vegas or a "omg they got too much in expansion" take. The take is, Vegas was able to add so much because they had a blank slate, and it's pretty rare for a team in today's NHL or sports to be in that position.

As far as having a blank slate, the only other team I can think of right now in a comparable position both cap and asset wise is (funnily enough) the Senators, and it's questionable about whether ownership is committed enough to take advantage of that blank slate both through spending to the cap and by spending on a front office with the depth of experience that would make them capable enough to make some of the moves Vegas has made.

McPhee admitting a loss on the Tatar trade early and then flipping him with a mid 2nd + Suzuki is decent business.

 

[Hischier and Hughes]

Vegas will have an extremely hard time rebuilding eventually because theyre trading 75% of their picks and prospects

 

[Kairi Zaide]

He’s a Panarin level talent

Nice. So that means he's not better than Stone.

Vegas will have an extremely hard time rebuilding eventually because theyre trading 75% of their picks and prospects

Who cares?

 

[rojac]

They also don't get any $$ from Seattle. Let's tell the whole story, here.

Exactly, but I guess some people think it's worth $21M to not lose a depth player.

 

[Sens]

Vegas will have an extremely hard time rebuilding eventually because theyre trading 75% of their picks and prospects

Glass has not even entered the picture and you’re looking ahead to the rebuild lol

 

[Hischier and Hughes]

Glass has not even entered the picture and you’re looking ahead to the rebuild lol

As a GM you look forward to all of this, yes

Vegas’ GM has completely mortgaged the future for the now. Which is debatably better for the franchise

 

[danielpalfredsson]

McPhee admitting a loss on the Tatar trade early and then flipping him with a mid 2nd + Suzuki is decent business.

I don't disagree at all.

It is a good quality to know when you've made a mistake, and to do what is in your power to correct that mistake, even if it risks illuminating that mistake in the short term.

Although, I wouldn't argue that McPhee got value for Tatar. I think that Tatar had negative value when dealt to MTL. MTL would have probably still done a 2nd+Suzuki for Pacioretty if the Tatar to VGK trade never happened.

It was still a good move to know when to cut bait to clear that cap space and move on.

 

[allevat]

As a GM you look forward to all of this, yes

Vegas’ GM has completely mortgaged the future for the now. Which is debatably better for the franchise

Eh, they moved two of their premiere prospects, but they still have a decent pool, Glass and Hague both look solid to come up next year. And when you go to the Cup Final, it'd be a little weird not to try to exploit the current window, and the price of improvement is always picks and prospects.

 

[greasysnapper]

He’s a Panarin level talent

I disagree. Panarin was much better, and more dynamic, in a much stronger KHL. The KHL over the last 2 seasons has fallen apart and is arguably at one of its weakest points in decades. I think Gusev has skill, but I am not sure it will fully translate to the NHL and I don't know if he'll win over Gallant.

 

[Hyzer]

The fact that they'll likely be adding Glass and Gusev next season is quite scary.

On ELC, no less. They're primed for a number of years for pushing for the cup.

 

[Hyzer]

As a GM you look forward to all of this, yes

Vegas’ GM has completely mortgaged the future for the now. Which is debatably better for the franchise

Strongly disagree. They have all that major players signed long term and at good cap hits. They will get young guys in now on ELC's (Glass, Gusev) which will extend their window by 3-4 years. Vegas is capable of having a pretty decent window of competing for the cup

 

[Fantomas]

I disagree. Panarin was much better, and more dynamic, in a much stronger KHL. The KHL over the last 2 seasons has fallen apart and is arguably at one of its weakest points in decades. I think Gusev has skill, but I am not sure it will fully translate to the NHL and I don't know if he'll win over Gallant.

I really like Gusev and think he has the right mentality to thrive in the NHL. But I'm not expecting anything on the Panarin level.

 

[justafan22]

Strongly disagree. They have all that major players signed long term and at good cap hits. They will get young guys in now on ELC's (Glass, Gusev) which will extend their window by 3-4 years. Vegas is capable of having a pretty decent window of competing for the cup

They'll move Eakin or Reaves if need be. And one of Merrill or Holden too.

 

[ER89]

Not really

29 other teams could have acquired Stone but they didn't. The merit is fully on Vegas for being the ones to land him

No, no team in the Atlantic and probably the eastern conference could land him as evidenced by Fla and sj deals with ott.

 

[greasysnapper]

Strongly disagree. They have all that major players signed long term and at good cap hits. They will get young guys in now on ELC's (Glass, Gusev) which will extend their window by 3-4 years. Vegas is capable of having a pretty decent window of competing for the cup

Gusev won't be on an ELC next year.

 

[haveandare]

Yeah, good job adding the whole line but there's probably a reason most GM's don't buy an entire line of players this age and give them all huge deals at once. It's good right now but in a few years there's potential for it to get super ugly.

 

[HuGo Sham]

Pacioretty is still an enigma to me - and a floater BUT he's playing with the best C he's ever had and isn't required to lead like he did in Mtl - and Stone, wow, I saw a lot of him in Ottawa but his game is on another level now that he's with a stable, winning organization on a long-term contract

 

[deckercky]

Yeah, good job adding the whole line but there's probably a reason most GM's don't buy an entire line of players this age and give them all huge deals at once. It's good right now but in a few years there's potential for it to get super ugly.

There'll certainly be a time when the players outlive their value, but most of the contracts have not been that long. Of the contracts over $5M:
-Stastny is only 2 years after this one
-Pacioretty is only 4 years after this one
-Theodore is only 23 and looks great
-Schmidt is only 6 years for a 27 year old
-Fleury is only 3 more seasons

Stone is the only true 'big contract', and is showing why he earned it. He's a case of "you need to pay for talent".

If Gusev and Glass hit as another quasi-first line, the team could remain a contender for a long time (with the hope being that they, and other young players, take the reins as the older high salary players decline).

At minimum, the team is loaded until the end of Stastny's contract, and if they remain a contender that long, then fans will have gotten to see a lot of good high level hockey for 4 seasons before they have to deal with any kind of a building period.

 

[me2]

If I was a Seattle fan I’d be giddy right now over the possibilities. They’re guaranteed the players and the extra picks(teams will once again trade high picks to protect the one or two guys they can’t live without), they just need to make sure they find the right coach - like Vegas.

People a retconning hard over Vegas, because almost everything Vegas touched turned to gold in ways even Vegas wasn't expecting. That is very unlikely to be repeated. Seattle should be setting their sights ones Vegas' original plan, try and build a decent team that doesn't get blown out of the building every night while building through the draft on a longer term 3-4 plan before competing for the playoffs.

Let's go back and look again. Vegas were not even expected to make the playoffs going into their first year. McPhee went into the draft intending to build for the future, trade players at the deadline etc. When asked if he thought the team would have turned out this good, McPhee's own words "No. We sure worked hard at this. We were as well organized as a group could be, and the objective was to be as good as we could be. No one expected this."

Let's take a look at Vegas' expectations. without the modern retconning

The Hockey writers had them at #31.

ANALYSIS: Already an easy team to cheer for, I’m hoping the best for the Golden Knights but, reality is, they are an expansion team coming into a much-improved division. It’s going to be tough sledding for Vegas from Day 1. It will help having Marc-Andre Fleury in goal and I’m a fan of Gerard Gallant as a coach, but the forwards and defence are both going to be below average on paper. George McPhee is going to manage this team more for the future than the present, meaning the Golden Knights will be sellers and will only get younger as the trade deadline comes and goes. I can see the long-term vision and the upside is there, but the Golden Knights will likely be bringing up the rear during their debut season. They will keep building through the draft and, providing all or most of those first-round picks pan out, Vegas should reap the rewards in due time.

The NHL.com writers had them missing the playoffs.
TSN had Vegas a 31st.
TSN's "bold prediction/hot take" was Vegas not finishing 31st.
ESPN had them at 31
CBS had them at 30.
USAtoday had them shockingly high at #25!
ETC

HFBoards expectations were no different, Vegas would suck.

 

[Sugi21]

Max Paciorety has looked real good in the playoffs so far...looks fast and he's ripping the biscuit.

Yep and I think a lot has to do with him not being the go to guy that he was in Mtl! He’s the same like Kessel an awesome complimentary scorer but not someone to carry the load