Offseason Review: Vegas Golden Knights

Now that the dust has settled on a wild NHL offseason, let's take a look at how each team did in regards to drafting and free-agent signings. Today, we'll look at the Vegas Golden Knights.

The Knights seem like they're close. Every year they've been in the league they've made the playoffs. 3 out of 4 years they've made the final four, with one appearance in the Cup Finals to boot. A Championship should be right around the corner, and yet it continues to elude them. It's hard to say if there's a specific piece that the Knights are missing, although their depth at centre pales in conparison to what they have on the wings and on the blueline. It make GM Kelly McCrimmon's job a tricky one. Overcorrect too much and the team could find themselves less competitive than previous years, do nothing and they may never reach that ultimate goal. With that in mind, Vegas is heading into the season as the clear favourite to win the Pacific Division, which would grant them a fifth playoff berth in 5 years. Let's see what they did this summer to prepare.

Free Agency: 

The move everyone is talking about is a trade, although here were a few of those. The big one saw Marc-Andre Fleury unceremoniously traded out of town for Mikael Hakkarainen. Who, you may ask? A 2018 5th-round pick of the Chicago Blackhawks, one who has played 14 AHL games and hasn't scored a point. Nothing, essentially, was Vegas' return for their reigning Vezina Trophy-winning goaltender. It's madness, and it looks worse by the day because Fleury intends to play for the Blackhawks (who, by the way, were current Knights goaltender Robin Lehner's former team), and because less than a month later Vegas terminated Hakkarainen's contract. They literally just wanted Fleury's contract off the books, it didn't matter how well he played or what they got in exchange. 

What makes that trade even more unusual is Vegas didn't make any big splashes with the cap space they gained. The Knights re-signed Alec Martinez for three years, brought in Brett Howden from the Rangers in exchange for Nick DeSimone and a 2022 4th-rounder, traded Nick Holden and a 2022 3rd-rounder to Ottawa for Evgenii Dadonov, and swapped Cody Glass with Nashville for Nolan Patrick, who the Preds had just acquired in exchange for Ryan Ellis. Patrick is still sitting as an RFA at the moment, and will need to be signed to attend the Golden Knights' training camp, although Vegas currently doesn't have much cap space to sign him with.

The Knights then re-signed Mattias Janmark for one year, a player they acquired at last season's trade deadline, as well as stalwart 13th forward Patrick Brown, signed for two years. They added Laurent Brossoit out of free agency to play backup to Lehner, and signed Gage Quinney and Sven Baertschi to one-year two-way contracts.

Grade: C+; What exactly is Vegas doing? It seems like they're just spinning their wheels here, and while the team isn't obviously worse beyond the depature of last year's Vezina winner, they seemingly haven't done anything to get better. Nolan Patrick still needs a contract, and he may help push that needle when it comes, but even then his concussion issues are a major question mark. By all accounts Vegas is only moderately better at forward, the same on defence, and worse in goal. This is no way to win a Cup.

Draft:

Vegas lost their 3rd-rounder this year way back in 2018, in the deal that brought them Tomas Tatar from Detroit. They also used a couple of their acquired picks to trade around in this draft, which saw them pick six players total, but with four of them coming 102nd overall or later.

They held on to their 1st-round pick though, and used it at 30th overall to select forward Zach Dean. A 6'1" centre, Dean plays at a high pace, exactly what you want from a "modern" NHL forward. He's able to work his hands independantly from his feet and uses that ability to make plays while moving at high speeds. Primarily a playmaker, Dean's focus is always to set up his teammates. He makes quick, precise plays to that effect, and if a player is open, he can get them the puck. Dean scored 10 goals and 20 points in 23 games with the Gatineau Olympiques of the QMJHL last year, adding to his 18 goals and 46 points in 57 games the year before. He'll return to the Q this season.

In the 2nd round at 38th overall, a pick the Knights acquired from Detroit, Vegas drafted Daniil Chayka, a 6'3" left-shot defenceman from Moscow. Chayka is a netfront defender through-and-through. His main focus is keeping pucks out of the crease, and keeping attackers out of his goalie's eyes. He does so adeptly, and uses his long reach to break up plays before they ever reach a dangerous area. His scoring doesn't jump off the page for the most part, but he played on Russia's International team at the World Championships and scored a goal and 3 points in 3 games. Not worth putting too much stock into given the small sample size and the lack of offence in other areas of his game, but it's a feather in his cap nonetheless.

Grade: B; Two decent picks by Vegas this year. Dean could be the solution to the Knights' centre depth issue in short order, and that alone makes this a good draft for them. However, Vegas needs to start graduating some of their draft picks to the roster instead of using them all in trade packages. Currently, only one member of the Knights' roster was drafted by the team. If you wonder where thir cap issues come from, look no further.

Overall Grade: B-; There is little doubt that Vegas will be in the playoffs again this year, between their already storied success and the preceived weakness of the Pacific Divison they inhabit. The goal though, at least at this point, is not making the playoffs, but winning them. As it stands, there is little Vegas did this summer to improve those odds. If anything, they may have just made it harder on themselves.

What do you think of the wild offseason in Vegas?

Photo credit: Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports