Six original Golden Knights remain on the team, which always strives to be in the championship conversations
Six original Golden Knights remain on the team, which always strives to be in the championship conversations
The Vegas Golden Knights front office has been unapologetic in their quest to win a Stanley Cup. They have been aggressive in this journey, acquiring – and dropping – players to ensure the team is built for a championship run.
“It’s been a process that’s been calculated. It’s been based on good decisions made for the right reasons,” Vegas general manager Kelly McCrimmon said. “Our goal is the win the Stanley Cup. That’s what we’re trying to accomplish. That’s what we’re here to do.”
That means making tough decisions like trading away loved players for salary cap reasons and trading for and signing talented players to fill roster needs.
It's paid off as the Golden Knights are four wins away from fulfilling that goal.
“We think we built our best team. I like the makeup of our roster. Bruce [Cassidy] and his staff have done a tremendous job coaching that roster to the identity that we as hockey operations envision,” McCrimmon said. “We’re a four-line team. We have those top players in all the key positions, but we also have good depth at the forward position. We have very good depth at the blue line.”
Through the dust of constant tweaking and losing teammates, however, six Golden Knights – William Carrier, William Karlsson, Brayden McNabb, Shea Theodore, Jonathan Marchessault, and Reilly Smith – remain from the first team that went to the Stanley Cup Final in 2018.
“It’s tough to see a lot of the teammates that we had that started here in Vegas not here anymore. You realize that we have such an aggressive management group that they’re trying to win every year,” Smith said. “We put such a good product on the ice the first year that the expectations have gone up every single year. You have to lose some teammates in the process.”
On the ice, the original six players haven’t changed much, Smith said. Rather other things have evolved through six seasons.
“Guys are a lot more mature right? First year, they weren’t expecting us to win a lot of games,” Carrier said. “The last four or five years, we’ve been pretty good. Trying to put ourselves in good opportunities. This team knows how to win. That’s a big part of it.”
McCrimmon said that the front office evaluated the team every season, identifying needs to improve. He said that the Golden Knights found “lightning in a bottle” that first season, and Carrier agrees that the Golden Knights have improved drastically from that year.
“The first year, everyone is on contract year and overplaying what they really are. We overachieved. It was more of an emotional year that year,” Carrier said. “This year is we deserved to be here. We played well all year. We got some great guys and got some depth. It’s a little different than the first year.”