The Vegas Golden Knights Have Seen an Exodus of Players But Can They Still Compete this Season?
change has come to Vegas as a lot of players are heading elsewhere Chris garc of lock on Vegas golden kns is here to talk about the impact of these changes and the plans going forward for the golden kns all that and more next on today’s lockd on NHL [Music] podcast you’re locked on NHL your daily podcast on the National Hockey League part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day Gil Martin here and welcome everybody to the MonDay edition of the lock on NHL podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day I want to thank everyone who makes locked on NHL your first listen every day don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube or wherever you get your podcast so you never miss an episode today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel make every moment more as the playoffs end the sport stop sporting the way we want them to but this summer FanDuel is hooking up all customers with a boost or a bonus daily that’s right there’s something for everyone every day all summer long visit fanduel.com to get started it is my pleasure to welcome back to the show the co-host of locked on Vegas Golden kns Chris gck and uh Chris it’s been a a busy couple of weeks in Vegas for the Golden Nights hosting the draft always uh exciting but then a lot of players who have been on the team heading elsewhere your overall assessment of everything that’s been going on roster wise um two things right now that stick out number one Jonathan marches so I’ll try to keep it quick um the team couldn’t come to terms with March so the situation came down to term and the way the golden knights wanted to financially not the amount he was being paid but when he was paying the golden knights were and for lack of better terms screwing around a little bit if you will and tried to backload his contract when he was going to receive the money the a wouldn’t change a whole lot but the when the physical money came in it would have been near the end of the contract so that you know for lack of better term upset him a little bit and the gold kns the March so parted ways the other big move is Logan Thompson this was very unfortunate um Logan has had some issues in the organization notably with him and Goen under coach Shan Burke um two didn’t see eye to eye a lot of the time I guess we’ll kind of leave it right there which led to Logan Thompson requesting a trade so here comes elas Samson off to uh fill that void and um yeah here we are you mentioned samsonov how do you feel he fills that vo great awesome excited GNA be happier to have him and uh we’ll see I mean listen Samson off there’s a couple things here to to to talk about number one three straight seasons of 40 or greater appearances Aiden Hill has never had greater than 35 appearances in the regular season so the golden knights do need that um smaller deal made involving Akira schmeid from the New Jersey Devils and Alex holes maybe we’ll talk about that later but schmeid obviously a goenda issues or if samsonov does not do well between the pipes lav is Advanced metrics not very good but the dude choose up Innings if you will if we’re going to use a baseball term fair enough fair enough how do you replace marsho and his production um the golden knights didn’t um you know there there’s been a lot of rumors about other players you still hear Mitch marner’s name getting mentioned I don’t know you hear Trevor zrus getting mentioned possibly there could be a path to a deal with zres especially involving sheay Theodore and maybe some draft compensation we’ll see if that comes to fruition right now the path the gold kns have taken to replace marcheso starts internally with Pavel Doria and Brennan Bran Bran it’ll be his rookie season I think he’s got 15 or 18 NHL games under his belt couple of goals a few assists paval dor of a little bit better basically a point in every other game as far as his statistics go now enter Alec um Pardon Me Now enter Alexander Holt it’s been a long day uh Alexander Holt 16 goals 12 assists last season with the New Jersey Devils limited playing time fourth line roll see if the gold Knights can extract a little more out of them and then an interesting deal was made with Victor Olson only I think five goals last season not a small handful of assists but he’s had 20 or greater goals three times throughout his career couple of those times with Jack eel so there’s some history there maybe the gold Knights will get lucky and catch lightning in a bottle with some combination of olivon Holtz bran and dorv obviously the golden knights since their Inception have been a win now team do you see that philosophy changing at this point or do you expect them to continue along that path the mindset is still win now but this is a transition period for the golden knights cuz the Stanley Cup window was still there you got eel you got Stone you got Pitch rangelow you got Noah hanifin you got Tomas hurdle Aiden Hill is a Stanley Cup winning goalie Zack whitecloud is Young Shay Theodore is Young we can go on and on Nicholas W Ivan barbashev a winning Championship core is still there not marcheso unfortunately um I think the door closed a little bit with marcho’s exit so if the gold Knights can tread water until January not to make a a markstone joke but I will if the the gold Knights can tread water until January February you never know what happens with this organization and injuries it’s happened three years in a row it needs to be acknowledged fair fall otherwise it has happened three years in a row with high ranking players of this team going down which clears up salary cap space Kelly McMan has uh never met a trade he doesn’t like around the trade deadline as well so we’ll see what happens if the team Treads water until January and some salary cap space becomes available or if some good shiny new Pieces come about on the trade market the km’s going to be a buyer now I think the realistic plan is get through next season see what happens with Holtz dorf of bran olivon see if these are any long-term pieces for this team because the gold Knights will have a lot of money after the 2425 season to address free agents bigger value free agents and really make a run for the cup in 25 26 and 26 27 makes sense uh what has the fan reaction been to the last 10 days or so a lot of lot of damage control by the golden kns right now you see articles popping up in the media and stuff trying to uh put a positive spin on this and then you got people like myself that aren’t necessarily being as positive about it and you know I think in the beginning it was 80% all the golden knights screwed this up jonan maroso has gone Doom and Gloom um time to riot at City National where the golden knights practice and where the Executive offices are that’s leveled off a little bit I think 50% of the fan base give or take is on the side of the golden knights side saying okay March so is getting old five years is too long and then you got people like me who are saying listen this is not a good period for the golden knights right now they lost every unrestricted free agents Chandler Stevenson um why am I drawing a blank will kerer Mike amario Alec Martinez got a $4 million B with Chicago that wasn’t happening in Vegas but still all these free agents left marchas so is now on that list as well Logan Thompson asked for a trade these are big things happening with this team right now and now the gold Knights are scrambling to fill a void of about 80 or 90 goals and almost a 100 assists that are not with the team anymore and then you got the pr side of it which hasn’t been good so here comes Samson off here comes schme will Aiden Hill stay healthy will any of these other guys pop and find a way to replace that output there’s so much happening and can uh Bruce Cassidy who doesn’t have the best track record with younger players keep all this together there’s so many questions and I think troubled waters are ahead for this upcoming season the 2425 season for the Vegas golden kns do you expect any more moves between now and the start of training camp in September gold Knight’s got about $1.2 million to work with that’s way too much money on the credit card uh the golden knights I think will do something you could see something small like what a Daniel’s uh sprong strong sprong I think that’s how he pronounced his name he’s still out there you could see I mean I don’t know if the gold Knights got the assets to make that Marner Splash that’s I don’t know that’s um that that’s I don’t I don’t wishful thinking is the right way to put that but we’ll see Trevor Zess there could be a path involving Shay Theodor like we said earlier that would be interesting but is Zess that type of player to replace a marches so he’s flashy he’s fun does a lot of cool things out there lacrosse Michigan goals you know crazy assists from behind the net like he’s got a lot of flare to him but can he be on that top wing with Jack eel I don’t know I don’t know but if the team took a took a swing with h Trevor Zess who has a lot of young productive years in him I’d be okay with that all right well I know you and your co-host will have things uh followed every step of the way Chris why don’t you tell our viewers and our listeners where they could find the podcast and where they could find you on social media yeah so lock on vgk just like it sounds YouTube anywhere you catch your podcast you can find me at TD chrisg like touchdown chrisg and uh I I’ve been a fun follow lately I I’ve been chirping a little bit I’ve been a little chirpy so uh come on and muck it up with me we’ll have some fun all right Chris thanks so much thank you so much guys today’s episode is brought to you by your friends at FanDuel I love sports I love them so much I never want them to stop but as the playoffs wind down we get fewer games and the sports aren’t sportsing like I want them to but FanDuel lets me keep Sports going whenever I want all I have to do is open the app and 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And changes have come to Vegas as there was a substantial exodus of talent for the Vegas Golden Knights in free agency.
Chris Gawlik of Locked On Golden Knights joins us to discuss the impact of these changes and what to expect from VGK this coming season.
All this and more on today’s Locked On NHL Podcast with Gil Martin.
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