How Nicolas Hague Went from Vegas Draft Pick to Cup Champion

The Vegas Golden Knights only had one player they drafted on the ice in the playoffs. Here's how Nicolas Hague stepped it up when it mattered most.

The Vegas Golden Knights defeated the Panthers in five games, capped off by a 9-3 thumping to win their first Stanley Cup in their franchise's short existence. The promise by owner Bill Foley that the team would capture the cup by their sixth season has been well documented.

They’ve gotten there by swindling teams in the expansion draft to find talents like Reilly Smith and Jonathan Marchessault. They’ve been ruthless in sending beloved stars out the door for upgrades when needed, such as the unceremonious departure of Marc-Andre Fleury. They have been more than happy to send out picks and prospects in trades to acquire pieces that could put them over the top, such as Mark Stone and Jack Eichel.

Simply put, they’ve been all-in since Day 1.

Since coming into the league, they’ve been without their own first-round pick twice but still managed to make six choices in the first round of the NHL draft, mostly due to the swindling of teams in the expansion draft. Of those six picks, only one remains in their system - winger Brendan Brisson from the 2020 draft.

Cody Glass, Nick Suzuki, Erik Brannstrom, Peyton Krebs and Zach Dean were all drafted by Vegas, and yet, they played a combined 79 games for the team, with Glass’ 66 contests accounting for most of it.

That willingness to mortgage the future for immediate success has clearly paid dividends as they captured the Stanley Cup, but it also means that they didn’t have much true “homegrown talent” on their roster. In fact, they only had one player drafted by the team who was a regular contributor.

Meet Nicolas Hague, the Vegas-drafted Cup champion. He was a second-round pick, taken 34th overall in the Golden Knights’ first draft in 2017.

The 6-foot-6, 230-pound player was one of Vegas’ best defenders this season, and he took his game to another level in the playoffs.

Hague’s six points in 22 games on their title run don’t jump off the page, but he’s put up some outstanding metrics outside of the standard counting stats. 

Not only were he and Alex Pietrangelo on the ice for the most goals-for of any defenseman in the Stanley Cup playoffs at 5-on-5, but Hague's 66.67 goals-for percentage at 5-on-5 was tied for the second-best of any defender in the final, behind only Shea Theodore. He and defensive partner Zach Whitecloud led all skaters in 5-on-5 goals-for in the Cup final with eight, according to naturalstattrick.com. No one else had more than six.

Hague was also pivotal in the clinching game, scoring the game’s second goal by finding a loose puck around the goal mouth and banging it in. Whether the whistle went was irrelevant because the goal counted at the end of the day and Vegas seemed to put their foot on the gas from that point forward.

Hague isn’t a star by any means, but his development into a legitimate top-four quality defender has been a welcome sight for the Knights. 

He uses his length and strength to his advantage defensively, laying big hits and swiping the puck off opposing attackers’ sticks. Hague has become a steady puck-mover who can be relied upon to make a first pass when needed, although his partner Whitecloud is the primary puck-moving defender.

The magic of the duo is that they complement each other so well. They’ve played together at the AHL level and worked their way to the NHL together. They are friends off the ice as well, playing golf and learning to be professional athletes alongside each other. The chemistry they have developed over the years came full circle this year as one of the league's best third pairs.

The playoffs were truly Hague’s coming-out party. He was a pivotal character in the story that has been this Vegas championship squad just about every step of the way. From his pair’s two-way dominance to laughing off punches to the face multiple times throughout the playoffs, Hague was quietly and comically a pivotal piece for the Vegas Stanley Cup championship.

The previous five champions averaged 10.4 drafted and developed players on the rosters. Colorado had six last year on the low end, while St. Louis had 14 players on the high end. Vegas having just one drafted and developed player is the exception, and it's largely driven by the fact that they have only been in existence for six years.

Having just one "homegrown" player is an uncommon occurrence for Stanley Cup champions. Conventional thought is that the best teams are drafted, developed and kept together as long as possible to reach the pinnacle of the sport together. Vegas has never been a fan of conventional thought, though.

Instead of being a team full of drafted and developed players, they have the Original Six Golden Misfits. Marchessault, Smith, William Karlsson, Brayden McNabb, Shea Theodore, and William Carrier are all still with the team from their inaugural season. While the NHL is so often referred to as a copycat league, the Golden Knights likely won’t be replicated anytime soon.

#VegasBorn has been the Golden Knights’ tag on Twitter since their inception, but only one player on the ice for them in the playoffs can truly say they are Vegas-drafted, and that’s Nicolas Hague.