There Goes the Defense: Whitecloud, Martinez Ruled Out, Hague DTD

More bad news has plagued the Vegas Golden Knights organization as Monday after practice head coach Peter DeBoer confirmed that Alec Martinez would not play against the Buffalo Sabres Tuesday. Martinez has missed since Nov 11th with a facial laceration but has been skating with the Golden Knights in practices.

After traveling with the team, it looked as if Martinez would return to the Golden Knights soon. But it looks like we will have to wait until after the NHL’s All-Star Break.

Additionally, DeBoer announced that defenseman Zach Whitecloud will also miss Tuesday’s game and that Nicolas Hague is day-to-day. Whitecloud was a late scratch in Jan 20th’s game against the Montreal Canadiens then missed another game due to back spasms. It is highly likely that this is the reason he is out once more for the Golden Knights.

For Hague, he is also coming off of a wrist injury that sidelined him for ten games.

Whitecloud and Hague join Martinez in the list of unavailable Golden Knights which has Jack Eichel on it with his neck injury and Chandler Stephenson and Dylan Coghlan in COVID-19 protocols.

Daniil Miromanov, Brayden Pachal, and Kaeden Korczak have all been recalled from the Henderson Silver Knights. We could very well see the NHL Debut of either Korczak or Pachal Tuesday night against the Sabres.

Defensive line combinations at practice were as follows.

Alec Martinez*- Alex Pietrangelo

Brayden McNabb- Shea Theodore

Ben Hutton- Kaedan Korczak

Daniil Miromanov- Brayden Pachal

OUT: Dylan Coghlan (COVID), Zach Whitecloud, Nicolas Hague, Alec Martinez