Vegas Golden Knights: Keeping a sense of perspective after Nikita Gusev trade

After months of speculation and number crunching, we can all move on with our lives after the Vegas Golden Knights finally found a way to end the Nikita Gusev saga.

Yes, after a summer-long pursuit of the Russian stud, the Vegas Golden Knights eventually admitted defeat and gave up the chase, trading Gusev to the New Jersey Devils for a third round pick in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft and a second round selection in the 2021 NHL Entry Draft.

And it didn’t take long for the Devils, who look primed to make a big impression in 2019-20 after loading up on weapons this offseason, to lock Gusev down to a two-year, $9 million contract and rub further salt into the wounds of Vegas fans.

As expected, the news didn’t go down too well among Golden Knights fans who have been longing for a Nikita Gusev contract announcement all summer. They got one, but it just wasn’t the outcome they were hoping for.

You can see why to an extent because, let’s be honest, you can make a strong argument that Gusev was the best player outside of the NHL last year. He dominated the KHL and led the league in points with 82 (17 goals, 65 assists) in 62 regular season games, before absolutely lighting up the IIHF World Championships alongside Tampa Bay Lightning star Nikita Kucherov, finishing the tournament with four goals and 12 assists for 16 points.

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Gusev will arrive in North America with high expectations but with all the skills needed in order to live up to those hopes and unlock the high potential that has followed him around for a few years now. Should he only replicate 80 percent of his offensive prowess in Russia, then that should still translate to roughly 57 points (21 goals, 36 assists), which is a scary thought in itself (info per Dom Luszczyszyn at The Athletic).

So, all the Devils need to do now is surround Gusev with potent weapons and hope that the Russian stud can learn to crack the NHL before taking the league by storm. That shouldn’t be hard given the abundance of riches New Jersey has accumulated this summer.

First it was Jack Hughes with the 1st overall pick in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft, which was swiftly followed by a blockbuster trade that brought the NHL’s very own Mr. personality, AKA, P.K. Subban over from the Nashville Predators. Oh and they were not done there, signing powerhouse forward Wayne Simmonds on the opening day of free agency before now acquiring Gusev.

Should Gusev follow in the footsteps of fellow countrymen Nikita Kucherov and Artemi Panarin and indeed flourish in the NHL, then it will be tough viewing for Vegas fans. I would almost compare it to going to a bar and seeing your ex making out with someone who is a clear upgrade.

But, and bear with me here, I do think a sense of perspective is needed and maybe we will all feel better once this has sunk in a little bit. Or maybe not. But we’ll soon find out one way or another.

Regardless of whether we get over this trade or not, and we won’t find out who really won this deal until later on in the year at least, this was a move that the Golden Knights had to make. They were backed into a corner and did what they thought was best for the franchise.

Remember, this team has been built on the mantra that it is about the collective rather than the individual, so no one player was ever going to take precedence over the rest of the locker room, no matter how good he is or rather how great he could become.

The locker room is a sacred place and the Golden Knights have forged a chemistry that is almost unbreakable. The culture that has been cultivated in Sin City is based on a number of pillars made up of leadership ability and high-character players.

Cody Eakin and Ryan Reaves are high-character players and leaders in their own right, so you can understand why there was a reluctance to let either of those two go via trade in order to create cap space to then go out and thrash out a deal with Gusev.

Now, before you say it, I am well aware that Gusev is a singular talent who, provided he can handle the NHL, should be able to put up between 45-60 points and bring the best out of the players around him. The thought of him and Jack Hughes on the same line in New Jersey just isn’t worth thinking about.

But Eakin and Reaves bring more to the table than that. Yes, they can provide secondary scoring, yes they both enjoyed career years in 2018-19 and yes they could be replaced by cheaper options, but that isn’t the point here.

The point is that both Eakin and Reaves are essential glue guys in that locker room and shipping them out to make room for an unknown commodity in the NHL could potentially harm chemistry, which is the last thing you want.

President of Hockey Operations George McPhee and General Manager Kelly McCrimmon know what they are doing, they’ve been around the game long enough and they have had to make some tough decisions this summer due to the harsh realities of living in a salary cap world.

Giving up Colin Miller was hard, as was the trade that sent Erik Haula to the Caroline Hurricanes and this one is just the same, apart from it could sting a little bit more should Gusev morph into the player we all think he’s capable of becoming. But you win some and you lose some.

The Golden Knights front office knew they were going to have to trim some fat off the roster in order to lock down William Karlsson to a long-term deal, and that was rightly the biggest priority of the offseason.

Yes, there is no doubt that Vegas would have loved to have Gusev on the roster in 2019-20, but you can’t win them all and the price of shedding more depth and losing some key guys from the locker room was probably too steep for the front office.

Plus, and although the return doesn’t look that attractive at first glance, a second round pick and a selection in the third round does give the Knights some flexibility going forward. Not only does it give them one hell of a treasure chest of picks in which to further replenish the pipeline, it also gives them the opportunity to create an appealing package at next year’s Trade Deadline should they need to add an elite NHL stud to the roster in order to aid a deep postseason run.

And let’s not forget Cody Glass. The high-end talent is ready to make the leap to the NHL now and Gusev’s trade to New Jersey could open up a door for the 20-year-old. Glass has all the tools in his armoury needed to morph into a high-end talent in the majors and he could now have the chance to win a spot on the third-line out of training camp.

All of the immediate narratives will dictate that the New Jersey Devils hit an almighty home run out of the park and won this trade hands down. And maybe at first glance they did. But let’s not get too carried away right now and start writing off what has been a productive offseason because of one trade.

The Vegas Golden Knights are still a Stanley Cup contender and they now have extra draft capital with which to play with. Of course, losing a player of Gusev’s caliber is never easy and maybe he will be the difference for the Devils, but the Golden Knights haven’t whiffed on this trade just yet and it is crucial we all look at the bigger picture at play here.

Let’s keep some perspective.