Vegas GM Opens Up About Trade Deadline Plans

We've heard reports from various insiders that the Vegas Golden Knights will once again be a team to watch as we approach the trade deadline. Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff recently said, in regards to Shea Theodore's $5.2M salary potentially going on LTIR, "I don’t know exactly what Vegas is up to, (but) we know that whatever is on the market, they’re likely to have made calls on, because they are always chasing the big shiny toy on the market."

Insider Elliotte Friedman also mentioned Vegas as a potential player in the Mikko Rantanen trade market, if Carolina looks to flip him.

But if you listen to Golden Knights general manager Kelly McCrimmon, he doesn't intend to make any big splashy moves, as he told the Review-Journal on Thursday.

I don’t think we were ever looking at this as a year that we were going to be real busy. I don’t see us being big players at the trade deadline this year...
We’ll be diligent and very engaged, but it’s impossible to say what exactly might happen between now and March 7.

Keep in mind that Vegas already made a notable addition to their roster with the recent signing of 7-time 20-goal scorer Brandon Saad to a one-year, $1.5 million deal after he and the St. Louis Blues mutually agreed to terminate his contract.

Although the Knights only played .500 hockey during the month of January, they still sit tied with the Edmonton Oilers with 72 points, atop the Pacific Division standings.

As for the Theodore injury, which takes him out of the Veags lineup on a week-to-week basis, McCrimmon was just as upset for the player as he was for his team.

“I was anxious for the rest of Canada and the United States to realize how good Shea Theodore is because of the fact we’re in the Pacific time zone,” McCrimmon said. “I think there’s a lot of people that don’t realize how good Shea is, how good a season he is having. I felt bad for him.

"From a Golden Knights standpoint, it takes a really good player off our roster and it'll definitely have an impact."

We will see if McCrimmon's statements about being quiet at the deadline are accurate, or just a smokescreen to allow him to swoop in for another huge move.