Vegas Golden Knights Parting Ways With Luca Sbisa

The Vegas Golden Knights are moving on from the veteran defenseman.

As July 1st approaches, there’s no doubt that the Vegas Golden Knights are going to make some calls around the league. Players are going to want to play in Vegas; there’s no question about that. However, all is quiet on the Golden Knights front as of late.

No Erik Karlsson trade rumors (for now) and no interviews with bigtime free agents. The Golden Knights are really good at being tight-lipped when it comes to their transactions. However, one may have slipped through the cracks as an insider has a track on what’s going on with one of the Golden Knights unrestricted free agents.

Reports have surfaced from multiple outlets that Luca Sbisa will not be back wearing a Golden Knights sweater next season. Golden Knights general manager George McPhee made it clear that he made offers to every one of his free agents. But there’s another side to the story according to Sbisa’s agent.

Andre Rufener is Sbisa’s agent, and he made something evident on Friday. “We did negotiate with Vegas. We talked earlier in the season. Then Luca got hurt, and they put us on hold. We never received an offer.” Rufener also added that Sbisa is drawing interest from other teams around the NHL.

Someone’s playing liar in the room, and we’ll probably never know who’s telling the truther. Either way, Sbisa is on his way out the door. And any team that’s looking for a boost on defense needs to take a look at the Ozieri, Italy native.

The 28-year old had a rock-solid regular season despite multiple injuries. The veteran defenseman notched two goals, 12 assists and 14 points in just 30 games played. At the beginning of the year, he played with fellow defenseman Nate Schmidt. After sustaining an injury, the coaching staff paired him with Colin Miller.

There’s a big difference between playing with Schmidt and Miller. Schmidt is a very a steady defenseman and can help in more ways than one. Miller is very one dimensional, his speed is very apparent, and he is an offensive-oriented defenseman. Sbisa was more comfortable playing with Schmidt than Miller as Sbisa often had to make up for a lot of Miller’s shortcomings.

Sbisa had a strong start to the playoffs but ended on a really sour note in the Stanley Cup Final. Perhaps if he had a better Cup Final, he would still be here, but that wasn’t the case whatsoever. At times, Sbisa looked like one of the worst players on the ice.

Sbisa finished the 2018 Stanley Cup playoffs with four assists in 12 games played. The one glaring stat that is often underlooked is giveaways and Sbisa had 12 of them. Do the math, that’s a giveaway per game, and head coach Gerard Gallant can’t have that on the team moving forward.

There’s no doubt Sbisa will get looks from teams craving defense like the Toronto Maple Leafs, New York Islanders and more. Although, for the Golden Knights to walk away, it just goes to show how much confidence the team has in Jon Merrill.

If the Golden Knights decide to sit back and not go after a free agent defenseman, Merrill has all the capabilities of being in the Golden Knights top six. Merrill signed a two-year extension with the Golden Knights back in January at a meager price of 1.375 million per year. The 26-year old still wants to prove himself, so giving him a shot in the top six on an every game basis isn’t a bad idea, either.

Merill scored just one goal, two assists and three points in 34 games played. Not very flashy numbers by any means, but Merill was solid when called upon by Gallant.

Next: Vegas Golden Knights: Signing James van Riemsdyk Would Fill Huge Hole In Lineup

All in all, Luca Sbisa’s time with the Vegas Golden Knights is just about up. The organization is looking at going in another direction on the blue line.  We’ll just have to wait and see what that next step is.