DETROIT \u2014 Year after year after year. It is unreal how the Vegas Golden Knights keep doing it.<\/p>\n
They target a big-name player, and well, for the most part they get him.<\/p>\n
And the thing that\u2019s important to stress, too, is how calculated it is. This isn\u2019t about swinging wildly at every single big name on the market. The Golden Knights have been very precise in which guys they\u2019ve put a bullseye on and how they\u2019ve gone about getting them. This is their M.O.<\/p>\n
And they did it again with Mitch Marner.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust really an elite, elite player,\u201d Golden Knights general manager Kelly McCrimmon told The Athletic this week at the GMs and coaches meeting when asked about getting Marner. \u201cThere\u2019s a perception that we go after every player. We don\u2019t. We are pretty specific about the players we have had interest in. Mark Stone. Alex Pietrangelo. Jack Eichel. Noah Hanifin. Tomas Hertl. Those were big moves by our team. They were the right guys \u2014 big parts of our organization. And we think Mitch Marner is in that league and in that category of player. That\u2019s why, when he was going to market, that\u2019s why we were really interested in the player.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
There are parallels to draw between Stone and Marner. Both were major cogs for a Canadian franchise and are now able to just do their thing. Stone became available after contract talks went south with the Ottawa Senators. Marner decided it was time to leave his hometown.<\/p>\n
In each case, Vegas benefits.<\/p>\n
Already in Marner\u2019s recent comments, you can hear a player who sounds relieved to have gotten a fresh start and leave the white noise behind him. Is there a burden lifted there?<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know that,\u201d McCrimmon said. \u201cAll I\u2019m concerned about is he\u2019s a Vegas Golden Knight now. That\u2019s my focus, that\u2019s his focus.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re looking forward to seeing him at training camp. We\u2019re excited to add him to our organization. He\u2019s a really high-end offensive player that\u2019s had a great career in the league. He\u2019s a two-way player, generates offense, sound defensively. He\u2019s going to complement what we have in Vegas and make us a better team.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for Eichel, another player who relished a fresh start in Vegas after being dealt from the Buffalo Sabres in 2021, he\u2019s entering the final year of his deal. There\u2019s obvious mutual interest in continuing that marriage.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a priority,\u201d McCrimmon said. \u201cIt remains a priority. He\u2019s been a great player for our organization. I think our organization has been great for him. So, lots of interest, obviously, I think from both sides to make something work.\u201d<\/p>\n
The loss of Pietrangelo long-term can\u2019t be underestimated. And while Vegas is believed to have tried hard to trade for the Calgary Flames\u2019 Rasmus Andersson in late June, McCrimmon said they\u2019re very content with how their blue line shapes up at the moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur roster, I think, is pretty much set,\u201d McCrimmon said. \u201cWe\u2019ll see what it looks like when we start. I\u2019m comfortable starting with where we are. On our blue line, we look for Kaedan Korczak (2019 second-round pick) to become an everyday player. I think Ben Hutton has a lot more to give than people realize. We think he\u2019s a good player. And we\u2019ve got some really good players above those guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shea Theodore, Noah Hanifin, Brayden McNabb, Zach Whitecloud and Jeremy Lauzon round out what remains a solid group on the back end.<\/p>\n
I would imagine the Golden Knights will see if they feel the need for an upgrade there once the season has begun. But again, McCrimmon seems satisfied for now.<\/p>\n
The top priority at the moment, as he said, is to get Eichel extended. My understanding is that there have been a few conversations to date on it. It\u2019s still early stages. It doesn\u2019t sound like anything is imminent, but there\u2019s a lot of time to get it done, and I would be very surprised if it didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
(Photo of Mitch Marner and Kelly McCrimmon: Chase Stevens \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DETROIT \u2014 Year after year after year. It is unreal how the Vegas Golden Knights keep doing it.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":202435,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[293,62,67,132,68,3116],"class_list":{"0":"post-202434","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-nhl","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us","13":"tag-vegas-golden-knights"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115151988666445781","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}