[News] The Vegas Golden Knights have officially been eliminated from Playoff contention 2022

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Inferno

That depends on how bad they need to gut the team. And whether or not teams will be smart and take advantage of them being desperate to shed cap space.

The Lehner contract isn't great but they could just keep sending out draft picks to sweeten things in their quest to win now. It's still a talented team that had a lot of bad injury luck this season. This time last year most Flames fans likely didn't envision a bounce back of this magnitude as professional sports is a year to year thing.

[Inferno]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

The Lehner contract isn't great but they could just keep sending out draft picks to sweeten things in their quest to win now. It's still a talented team that had a lot of bad injury luck this season. This time last year most Flames fans likely didn't envision a bounce back of this magnitude as professional sports is a year to year thing.

I still wouldn't trust their goaltending tandem a whole season. I wouldn't be shocked with them getting a division spot but winning the division would still be a question mark. They're going to have to get rid of more than Lehner and they're going to need to replace their expiring contracts.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

I don't care what they do as long as they don't get to circumvent the cap.

[Reggie Dunlop]

I think the LTIR loopholes get tightened up at the next GMs meeting.

[sureLoss]

Originally Posted by Reggie Dunlop

I think the LTIR loopholes get tightened up at the next GMs meeting.

changing how LTIR works will require reopening CBA negotiations with the NHLPA and it doesn't sound like the league has the appetite to do that at this time.

[csnarpy]

Originally Posted by sureLoss

changing how LTIR works will require reopening CBA negotiations with the NHLPA and it doesn't sound like the league has the appetite to do that at this time.

Yes, but capping the playoffs is definitely doable.

[dino7c]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

I think the Knights will bounce back next season and probably win the division if they can fix the goaltending situation but it's nice to see them sit this year out of the playoffs.

Probably? Have you seen their roster? They really aren't that good especially when cap compliant

[OILFAN #81]

https://sanjosehockeynow.com/san-jos...otron-message/

[Hot_Flatus]

This team is really a victim of it's own demise in many ways. It's hard to say that you shouldn't go after big fish like they did, but bringing in both Pietrangelo and Eichel on huge deals was not a smart move when you consider the cap situation.

They already had a good team, and could have achieved improvements by targeting lesser players or by bringing in just one of the above. Injuries were a big reason this team didn't get in this year, but even when they weren't completely hampered, they never looked like a team you'd be fearing at any time.

Now they are going to have to jettison some quality depth players that have made them as good as they have been, and are stuck with big holes in net. Don't like this team at all moving forward, especially with a beat up and injury prone Stone and Pacioretty and some pretty lackluster prospects.

[sss1]

As much as I would like to believe that VGK will be constrained by bad contracts in the near future, their chances of swapping out building blocks in order to become competitive again won't be that difficult.


They have the following advantages working for them:

1.) They still have good players up and down the roster, (excluding Eichel !)
2.) Regarding Eichel; he has a full off-season and training camp to pull himself together at 100% health. Even if he is the monumental jerk that some make him out to be, he has a good chance of bouncing back IMO. Too much skill.
3.) Vegas is a desirable location to play in. Players may waive contract clauses to play there; free agents will want to sign there.
4.) Since Vegas is still a 'new' franchise, they don't really have any big attachements or commitments to players yet - I feel like they can chuck any player out the window and no one will really care because there is no complete identity built around a core group yet. Someone will argue against this, but it's less than a handful of seasons since they first iced a team. No one cares (fans or management) about players leaving or arriving, and the VGK management has displayed this. And I think it actually works to their advantage (in the short term) to have this mentality.

Down the road the will have to worry about their drafting and prospects, but IMO they can keep afloat for a few years by focusing on their swapping out their current personnel.

[Itse]

Vegas falling flat on it's face this season might in the eyes of some prove that there's no problem with LTIR.

"As likely to backfire on you as it is to help." (I don't really agree that this means there's no problem, but it seems like a predictable reaction.)

[Hot_Flatus]

Originally Posted by sss1

As much as I would like to believe that VGK will be constrained by bad contracts in the near future, their chances of swapping out building blocks in order to become competitive again won't be that difficult.


They have the following advantages working for them:

1.) They still have good players up and down the roster, (excluding Eichel !)
2.) Regarding Eichel; he has a full off-season and training camp to pull himself together at 100% health. Even if he is the monumental jerk that some make him out to be, he has a good chance of bouncing back IMO. Too much skill.
3.) Vegas is a desirable location to play in. Players may waive contract clauses to play there; free agents will want to sign there.
4.) Since Vegas is still a 'new' franchise, they don't really have any big attachements or commitments to players yet - I feel like they can chuck any player out the window and no one will really care because there is no complete identity built around a core group yet. Someone will argue against this, but it's less than a handful of seasons since they first iced a team. No one cares (fans or management) about players leaving or arriving, and the VGK management has displayed this. And I think it actually works to their advantage (in the short term) to have this mentality.

Down the road the will have to worry about their drafting and prospects, but IMO they can keep afloat for a few years by focusing on their swapping out their current personnel.

The big advantage Vegas had coming out of the expansion draft was their depth, and they've lost it by bloating their salary structure with 11 players making north of $5M AAV and questionable big ticket deals to older/aging players.

How do you get out from some of these deals without crippling buyouts? How do you sign players, even on discounts when you have next to no cap room? Karlsson, Eichel and Stone all need to provide a heck of a lot more than they currently are to make that expense even palatable moving forward.

Currently they need to make some drastic changes to their bottom 6 forwards, goaltending and bottom pairing on D as I don't think either are good enough to get back to being an elite team anytime soon. Even with the top end talent.

[Enoch Root]

They still have a strong core to build around, but the problem going forward is that they have already shed all of the weak contracts - at this point, they are going to have to start moving good players (as they attempted to do with Dadonov). And they are going to lose Reilly Smith.

The next contracts that they can look to move would be Karlsson and Lehner (and maybe Dadonov again). But moving any of them is going to weaken the team.

And even if they move Lehner, they can't afford to bring back a top goalie. They either run with Lehner and Brossoit and shred the forward group, or they run with Broissoit and Thompson.

Eichel, Stone, Pacioretty, Pietrangelo, Martinez, Theodore is a pretty good core. But it isn't that good that they can get away with a totally depleted support cast.

They are going to have to sit and watch this group grow old, with no ability to build a team around them. And they have little in the way of prospects or picks upcoming.

They are the San Jose Sharks, waiting to happen.

[Geeoff]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

The Lehner contract isn't great but they could just keep sending out draft picks to sweeten things in their quest to win now. It's still a talented team that had a lot of bad injury luck this season. This time last year most Flames fans likely didn't envision a bounce back of this magnitude as professional sports is a year to year thing.

I bet the grease would take Lehner.

[Vinny01]

Vegas traded depth for elite talent which makes sense as long as you have the right elite talent.

Eichel is the type of player you want
Pietrangelo is a very solid blueliner but now north of 30
Mark Stone is maybe the best 2way winger in the game but his age and injuries are concerning.

I think their problem is they got old really quick by trading their best prospect for Pacioretty. Right now losing Brannstrom for Stone seems fine and the same with Glass for Patrick (double bust). Suzuki would be a great piece to have and I still think I make the Eichel trade if I am Vegas.

Good teams have bad years and miss the playoffs frequently. The Bruins in 2015, the Lightning in 2017, the Flames in 2021 so I think the bounce back potential is there.

[DynamRyan]

Originally Posted by N-E-B

No. For it goes beyond the cap thing. I hate them because:

1. They came into the league and were too good too quickly. They didn’t have to pay their dues. Which lead to…

2. They have really annoying and entitled fans who have, in my opinion, an overrated reputation of being a great fan base. Let’s see how well they do when their team is junk. And the amount of non-Vegas residents who bandwagoned them disgusts me.

3. They competed and beat us out on both Mark Stone and Jack Eichel (and yes, I’m aware Stone was only re-signing in Vegas, and Eichel was the best thing never to happen to us, but they still pissed me off during both those processes)

Agree about the entitled fans, and man...you should meet hardcore Avs fans. The ones that got gifted a cup-ready team and WON it in their first year there. The first time they missed the playoffs was in 2007. That being said.....couldn't have happened to a nicer franchise. Screw the Golden Balls.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Geeoff

I bet the grease would take Lehner.

I hope not for his sake. That market throws goaltenders under the bus like no other and he probably would have difficulty with the criticism.

[Inferno]

Originally Posted by Geeoff

I bet the grease would take Lehner.

He has a modified no-trade clause though. Even if he wants out and was smart he would say hell no.

[mile]

ok then

https://twitter.com/user/status/1519730866938908673

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

Do these guys either not know or not care that the Knights need to make substantial roster changes just to be cap compliant? No one knows what VGK will look like next year with the gutting they need to do. Such lazy editorialising.

Very few people get into journalism school by acing their math exams.