Krepps: Why the Golden Knights Shouldn’t Wait Until Trade Deadline to Add Forward

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The Vegas Golden Knights, despite a 15-4-1 record, are going to need a forward to help stabilize their lineup sooner rather than later. If that first sentence sounds familiar, it’s because I’m stealing a page out of our New York Islander writer’s book and arguing the same premise on how making a trade earlier in the season is beneficial for the Golden Knights.

We’re now 20 games into the 2022-23 campaign and past the point of the season where we can use the “it’s still early” phrase for teams both positively and negatively. The New Jersey Devils are for real, the Boston Bruins aren’t fading, and the Vegas Golden Knights are back as Stanley Cup Contenders.

Why The Golden Knights Need A Forward

The one thing that is holding back the Golden Knights from becoming an elite team is their lack of a reliable checking line. Although the personnel has changed with the recent injury to Nicolas Roy, it seems no matter who is playing on that third line; things don’t work out.

Phil Kessel has been the only constant member of the line. Paul Cotter, Jake Leschyshyn, Brett Howden, and Michael Amadio have all been in rotation. Cotter, Leschyshyn, and Kessel made up the team’s third line last game against the Vancouver Canucks and were benched in the third period.

Production hasn’t been a problem for the other three lines of the Golden Knights. Chandler Stephenson has found a home as a winger on the top line with Mark Stone and Jack Eichel. The Misfits continue to do their thing, and the fourth line, no matter the personnel, has been excellent.

It’s a simple dynamic for the Golden Knights in that they currently don’t have the personnel to put together a solid third line. With the departures of Max Pacioretty, Evgenii Dadonov, and Mattias Janmark, the Golden Knight’s third-line consists of two essential rookies, a waiver claim in Amadio, and a player nearing the end of his career.

It’s not working, and a trade might be the only way to make it better, as Jonas Rondbjerg and Sakari Manninen don’t seem like much better options, and Brendan Brisson is not ready.

Same Song And Dance

As the story goes, every year, good teams try and add players or “buy” at the NHL Trade Deadline. But how often does this actually work? More often than not, contending teams pay big prices at the deadline for a player that comes in for a few months and then goes on to come up short in the playoffs.

Then that rental player leaves in the offseason, and you are down a couple first-rounders and prospects.

Kevin Shattenkirk to Washington, Ben Bishop to Los Angeles, Eric Staal to the Rangers, Claude Giroux to Florida, and Jarome Iginla to Pittsburgh are remembered more on these particular teams as answers to trivia questions as opposed to players who had tremendous success with said franchises.

It’s the under-the-radar players that good teams go after and find that get you to the ultimate goal. Think of Artturi Lehkonen last season with the Avalanche, Barclay Goodrow and Blake Coleman with the Lightning, and how Carl Hagelin and Nick Bonino teamed up with Kessel in Pittsburgh.

Why Do It Now?

A theme with some of these deals is that some of them were made significantly earlier than the trade deadline. Coleman was acquired nearly two weeks before the trade deadline, and Hagelin in Janurary.

The biggest argument that I have with why adding players far before the deadline is that it allows them much more time to mesh with team systems instead of getting to a new team, having an adjustment period, and then all of the sudden it is the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Although he wasn’t a trade deadline acquisition and has still never played in the playoffs, we saw this last year with Jack Eichel and how it is challenging to come in and have immediate success with a new team.

And let me be clear that I am not predicting that the Golden Knights are going to do anything anytime soon; rather this is my personal opinion on how they should handle things. Good thing I’m not in charge.

We wrote a full piece the other day detailing who could be out there for the VGK. Potential candidates range from Bo Horvat to Max Domi. And Kelly McCrimmon might already be having discussions.