Report: Golden Knights Lost Trade Target to Rival

It’s not yet the trade deadline, but that didn’t stop teams from making big moves last week. Most notably, the Vancouver Canucks dominated headlines on Friday when they reunited JT Miller with the New York Rangers. Later that same night, they acquired defenseman Marcus Pettersson from the Pittsburgh Penguins. According to Elliotte Friedman, the Vegas Golden Knights are none too happy about the later move.

In his Written 32 Thoughts blog, Friedman reported that the Golden Knights were interested in Drew O’Connor, a young forward that the Penguins sent to Vancouver along with Pettersson. Here’s what Friedman wrote:

“The Canucks outwrestled Western rivals Edmonton and Vegas (among others) for Drew O’Connor, and will attempt to extend him, too.”

Outwrestled.

Interesting.

I’ve watched O’Connor a fair bit, and I can understand why the Golden Knights were interested in his services. He’s young, he’s big, and he can forecheck. He’s fast, albeit not an especially good skater. O’Connor is a pending UFA and is currently making just $925,000.

On paper, that’s enough to make any team excited. If you factor in the Golden Knights’ recent struggles, a player like O’Connor becomes even more attractive.

Read More: Ice Cold: Inside the Golden Knights’ Frigid January

It’s no secret that the Golden Knights are in a rough patch; they’ve won just three of their last 14 games. Their Western Conference rivals– both the aforementioned Canucks and the Dallas Stars– are already gearing up for the postseason. So it makes a fair amount of sense that they were in on a player like O’Connor.

O’Connor is a fine bottom-six forward, and he is excellent on the forecheck– that alone would have made him a good Golden Knight– but he struggles to produce consistently. Earlier this year, O’Connor went through a 32-game goalless drought. He’s scored seven goals through 55 games this season, and one was into an empty net.

O’Connor is a very similar player to Keegan Kolesar. Kolesar is a little smaller but also a better hockey player. Kolesar puts up better numbers in fewer minutes and does so without the help of Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin, who O’Connor played with for much of this year.

Again, O’Connor is a fine bottom-six player and probably would’ve done fairly well in Vegas. But no one– and I mean no one– has a chance in hell at winning a bidding war against Jim Rutherford when he’s on a mission. For Pettersson and O’Connor, the Canucks gave up the conditional first-round pick they acquired from the New York Rangers just a few hours earlier. In layman’s terms, that’s an overpay.

Kelly McCrimmon missed out on a player he wanted. But in doing so, he avoided what almost certainly would’ve been a serious overpay.