Game Day #8: Shorthanded Golden Knights Lines, Notes, vs Ducks

The Vegas Golden Knights’ roster is a mess.

With William Carrier now day-to-day with a lower-body injury and both Alexander Miromonov and Kaeden Korzack reassigned to the Henderson Silver Knights, the team is potentially down to ten forwards. Carrier is a game-time decision and Nolan Patrick and Mattias Janmark are confirmed out.

Along with Carrier, Patrick and Janmark are also day-to-day. If all three of Patrick, Janmark, and Carrier are unable to play tonight against the Anaheim Ducks, the Golden Knights will once again have a short bench. This potentially leaves the team down to ten or eleven forwards. 

The team recalled Jonas Rondbjerg from the Henderson Silver Kinghts as a result.

Yesterday the team signed Zach Whitecloud to a six-year extension and brought in NHL free agent Ben Hutton. According to CapFriendly, Hutton’s contract is “pending registration” which likely has to do with the Golden Knight’s cap situation.

The team has a projected cap space of $0 yet currently has over $8 million in cap space due to the contracts of Alex Tuch, Max Pacioretty, and Jake Bischoff on LTIR. Mark Stone, who is also injured, skated at team practice Friday morning.

Kelly McCrimmon has a lot of work to do off the ice in terms of sorting out their current roster. But an NHL season does not come to a halt because of bad team management. The Golden Knights (3-4-0) are back home tonight as they face off against the Anaheim Ducks (2-4-2) for the first time this season. 

The rebuilding Ducks are getting solid scoring out of young players such as Troy Terry, Jamie Drysdale, Trevor Zegras, and Isac Lundestrom. The Ducks are in the midst of rebuilding their organization with young players after having missed the last three postseasons.

What to Watch

Jonathan Marchessault scored his second goal of the season in dramatic fashion Wednesday night. With just over one minute left in regulation, Marchessault blasted home a one-timer which forced overtime.

The Golden Knights need more of this from Marchessault. 

With the injuries to top scorers Max Pacioretty and Mark Stone, the Golden Knights offense is depleted. Look no further than the 0-32 powerplay. But there was a time in Golden Knights history where superstars like Stone and Pacioretty were not on the team.

Jonathan Marchessault led the team in scoring then. He needs to build off of the momentum of the last game and continue leading the Golden Knights. Through seven games Marchessault has only two points, both goals.

Scoring as a whole has been an issue for the Golden Knights early on in the season. Not only has Marchessault been struggling to find the back of the net but others have as well. The young guns on the Golden Knights roster have yet to truly emerge as NHL players. Peyton Krebs, Jake Leschyshyn, and Daniil Miromanov have a combined one point on the season.

Granted, these former prospects were essentially thrown into the lineup because of cap issues and injuries. But in the limited time, these youngsters have had at the NHL level. You have to wonder if this could hurt their development down the line.

Even if the Golden Knights are able to put together a full-NHL lineup tonight the team will still be missing some top scorers. For the Golden Knights to win, they must simplify their game as they have done in their past two meetings against the Avalanche and Stars. 

Projected Vegas Golden Knights Lines

Jonathan Marchessault- William Karlsson- Reilly Smith

Peyton Krebs- Chandler Stephenson- William Carrier*

Evgenii Dadonov- Nicolas Roy- Keegan Kolesar

Brett Howden- Jake Leschyshyn- —

Nicolas Hague- Alex Pietrangelo

Alec Martinez- Shea Theodore

Brayden McNabb- Dylan Coghlan

Robin Lehner/Laurent Brossoit

IR: Alex Tuch, Max Pacioretty, Mark Stone, Nolan Patrick, Zach Whitecloud, William Carrier, Mattias Janmark

Projected Anaheim Ducks Lines per PuckPedia.com 

Adam Henrique- Trevor Zegras- Rickard Rakkell

Sam Steel- Ryan Getzlaf- Troy Terry

Sonny Milano- Isac Lundestrom- Jakub Silfverberg

Nicolas Deslauriers- Benoit-Olivier Groulx- Maxime Comtois

Hampus Lindholm- Jamie Drysdale

Cam Fowler- Josh Manson

Simon Benoit- Kevin Shattenkirk

John Gibson/Anthony Stolarz

IR: Max Jones, Mason McTavish, Ryan Kesler

How to Watch/Listen: 5:00 pm local on ESPN+ and 98.9 FM.