Golden Knights Wrap: Player Grades, Offseason Updates, Trade Rumors, and New Arrivals

Don’t worry I made it.

For those of you that don’t know, (or don’t care) I have officially moved to Nevada from Pennsylvania as a fresh out of college 22 year old. I will be continuing my coverage of the Vegas Golden Knights with VHN and also writing for the Boulder City Review, a town that I now call home.

Thank you all for your support over the past few months. I’m just getting started!

Anyways, onto some news and notes regarding the Golden Knights and the greater hockey world. I was AFK for three days while I made the drive/move out to Nevada so we have a lot to catch up on.

Player Grades

First and foremost, VHN’s player review series has concluded. I went in a random order but still made sure to grade every player’s season. Here’s our official tier list if you will.

A+ Chandler Stephenson
A Jonathan Marchessault, Shea Theodore, Alex Pietrangelo, Logan Thompson
B+ Zach Whitecloud, Nicolas Roy, Brayden McNabb, Ben Hutton, Michael Amadio
B- Jack Eichel, Reilly Smith, Brett Howden, William Carrier
C+ Keegan Kolesar, Nicolas Hague
C Jonas Rondbjerg
C- Laurent Brossoit, Mattias Janmark, Dylan Coghlan, Jake Leschyshyn
D Max Pacioretty, Mark Stone, Willliam Karlsson, Alec Martinez
D- Robin Lehner, Nolan Patrick

I’ll be honest, these grades are a little strict but I had to be brutally honest considering the Golden Knights failed to make the playoffs for the first time in franchise history.

Golden Knights News and Trade Rumors

Smith: It’s not yet official as the Golden Knights need to find a way to work around the salary cap, but all signs are pointing toward Reilly Smith taking a pay cut to stay with the Golden Knights for three more years at around $5 million.

Hague: With little to no cap space to work with the Golden Knights have reportedly received calls on restricted free agent defenseman Nicolas Hague. With a core of Theodore, Pietrangelo, Martinez, McNabb, and Whitecloud, the Golden Knights could potentially see Hague as expendable.

Burke: From the goalie department, the Golden Knights are expected to add Sean Burke to their goaltending staff as the Director of Goaltending. A former NHL’er, Burke played 18 seasons as a goaltender in the NHL and previously worked in management with the Montreal Canadiens.

Calendar: With the Stanley Cup awarded, here is yet another updated look at the Vegas Golden Knight’s 2022 offseason calendar and what’s next for them and the NHL.

Dallas: Peter DeBoer was “rattled” by the Golden Knight’s decision to fire him. Now, he’s the head coach of yet another Western Conference team, the Dallas Stars.

ICYMI: General manager Kelly McCrimmon took a baby step ahead in signing his list of RFA’s this summer as he re-signed Daniil Miromanov to a two-year extension a week ago.

NHL News, Trade Rumors, and National Hockey Now

Stanley Cup: The Colorado Avalanche are your 2022 Stanley Cup Champions. Head over to Colorado Hockey Now for all the coverage on Nathan Mackinnon, Cale Makar, and Gabriel Landeskog’s first championship. Terry Frei is going as far as saying this is the best Avs team ever assembled.

Florida/Vancouver: Henrik and Daniel Sedin as well as Roberto Luongo are now in the Hockey Hall of Fame as they were among six inducted in the class of 2022. Henrik Zetterberg was snubbed in his first year of eligibility.

Boston: The Boston Bruins have signed general manager Don Sweeney to a multi-year extension.

Montreal: Could we see Marc Savard as a head coach in the NHL?