Vegas Golden Knights Forward Vadim Shipachyov Retires
The Vadim Shipachyov saga has finally come to an end for the Vegas Golden Knights.
The Vegas Golden Knights have a lot of issues going on. The team looks like they’re coming back down to earth as they’ve dropped five of the last six games on the eastern coast road trip. And their goaltending situation is also a hot mess.
According to Golden Knights General Manager George McPhee, none of their goalies have been medically cleared play hockey games. Although Maxime Lagace has been decent throughout this little stretch, the Golden Knights would prefer to have one of their three injured netminders to return to the cage.
But amongst the struggles and the injuries, the hockey club has finally closed the book on the Vadim Shipachyov saga. And all I can say is thankfully its finally over. For those who don’t know much about this story, I’ll explain.
It all started when McPhee agreed to a two year deal with Shipachyov worth nine million dollars. He was supposed to be the team’s number one center and their biggest offensive weapon. However, things took a turn for the worst when Shipachyov didn’t make the big club out of camp.
The Vegas Golden Knights assigned Shipachyov to the teams AHL affiliate Chicago Wolves. After a solid week of no practices or games played in the minors, the situation started to raise eyebrows. But after injuries to Erik Haula and Jonathan Marchessault hit, Vegas recalled Shipachyov.
In storybook fashion, Shipachyov scored the game-winning goal against the Boston Bruins in his first NHL game. Fantastic first impressions go a long way, but the 30-year-old rookie couldn’t muster much of any offense after that. Head Coach Gerard Gallant gave the KHL superstar the least amount of ice time per night in three total NHL games, and it wasn’t even close.
The team once again assigned the Cherepovets, Russia native to the Wolves to work on the North American game. He finally agreed to join the team, but after one practice, he no-showed two hours before a game without notice. McPhee had seen enough as this was the final straw.
The annoying part of this whole situation is this could’ve been avoided if the team simply put Griffin Reinhart on waivers from the start. That move would’ve allowed Shipachyov to stay with the club the entire time, but the team was afraid to lose a potential future asset in Reinhart.
McPhee talked with all the members of the media this afternoon and spread the word that Vadim Shoipachyov has officially retired from NHL hockey. He will return to play hockey in the KHL where he once thrived. McPhee’s first mistake as Golden Knights general manager was probably for the best. This squad is much better without Shipachyov in their lineup in the short term and the long term.
McPhee had a trade in place which would have sent Shipachyov to another NHL team. He elected not to report.
— gary lawless (@garylawless) November 9, 2017
At today’s press conference, McPhee said he at first tried to trade Shipachyov, but he wouldn’t go into much detail. However, Shipachyov had no interest in playing in the NHL after this situation. I bet a team like the Anaheim Ducks who were dealing with a ton of injuries at forward mainly down the middle were interested.
Next: Recapping The Vegas Golden Knights Disastrous Eastern Coast Road Trip.
With the Shipachyov saga out of the way, the team should finally focus on playing hockey games without any distractions. The Vegas Golden Knights are back home Friday night ready to take on the Winnipeg Jets at T-Mobile Arena. Catch puck drop with Dave Goucher and Shane Hnidy at 7:30 PM PT on AT&T Sportsnet.