Vegas Golden Knights: George McPhee deserves credit for sticking to his guns

We are a couple of days removed from what I am now going to call ‘Black Monday,’ and everyone still seems a bit tender in the wake of the Vegas Golden Knights trading Nikita Gusev to the New Jersey Devils.

You should all know the breakdown of the deal by now, but we’ll recap the finer details for you anyway. The Vegas Golden Knights got a third round pick in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft and a second round selection in the 2021 NHL Entry Draft for Gusev, who then signed a two-year, $9 million deal with the Devils.

It almost felt as though the walls had caved in with a vast majority of Vegas fans not impressed with the trade or the return the Golden Knights got back. In-fact, 61 percent of fans said they were not happy with how this offseason has panned out in the wake of the Gusev news in a poll we stuck up on social media.

Experts and various blogging websites slammed the return Vegas got for a player widely considered to be one of the best players outside of the NHL. And there is no getting away from the fact that Gusev has all the tools in his locker to be able to become a 45-60 points scorer in North America should he be able to make the transition.

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He will go down as one of the most productive scorers in the history of KHL after racking up more points than the likes of Artemi Panarin, while it has been calculated that 80 percent of his production in Russia would translate to roughly 57 points (21 goals, 36 assists) in the NHL. That in itself should hammer home the fact that the Devils are getting one hell of a player in Nikita Gusev.

Now, of course, there are no guarantees in life, and that especially holds true in the cut-throat, fickle world of professional sports. So it is no sure thing that Gusev will morph into a bona fide NHL superstar because, after all, for every Nikita Kucherov or Artemi Panarin there is a Vadim Shipachyov or a Nikita Nesterov.

Granted, all the signs are there that Gusev will indeed flourish in the NHL and he will also have the benefit of playing on a star-studded Devils roster following what has been an All-Star offseason for New Jersey who also added Jack Hughes, P.K. Subban and Wayne Simmonds to their team, while Taylor Hall will be available again following injury.

Vegas fans are right to be upset after losing a player of Gusev’s ilk, of course they are, and there is also the reality that every time the Russian stud does something spectacular or if he helps the Devils win a championship, then the Golden Knights will forever be linked to that and the ‘what if’ questions will start to flow.

However, and as I wrote in a column on Monday, a sense of perspective is needed here and President of Hockey Operations George McPhee also deserves praise for sticking to his guns over the Gusev situation.

Yes, on paper the return of a third round pick in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft and a second round selection in the 2021 NHL Entry Draft is low for the quality you are trading away, but let’s remember as mentioned above that Gusev has no prior experience in the NHL and there is no guarantee that he will be a success in the majors.

Also, the Golden Knights now own nine picks in the first three rounds of the next two drafts and they have shown since entering the NHL in 2017 that they can draft extremely well, as backed up by their work at the 2019 NHL Entry Draft where they replenished their farm system with eight intriguing prospects, including selecting Peyton Krebs with the No.17 pick who is projected to be a top-six forward in the big leagues eventually.

And there’s another factor at play here. Not only do they now have strong draft capital with which to acquire more young talent, but the Knights also boast a treasure chest of picks that they could look to utilise to help them trade for a proven NHL stud at next year’s Trade Deadline should they need to bolster their roster ahead of a potential deep postseason run.

Another criticism aimed at McPhee was why didn’t he look to trade other assets, including Cody Eakin, Ryan Reaves and Nick Holden, who were all reported to be on the trade block at one point or another this summer. Now, before we get on to Reaves and Eakin, I personally would have looked to shop Holden because, with the plethora of blueline talent the Knights have in the farm system, he has now become expendable.

Plus, Holden hardly set the world alight last year in Vegas and his play has been on a downward spiral for a few years now. However, as a result of that, trying to move his $2,200,000 cap hit to another team would probably have proved difficult, while buying him out wouldn’t have been enough to create the cap space needed to sign Gusev to a new deal anyway.

Moving back to Eakin and Reaves and McPhee made a brilliant point when speaking to the media this week, something we mentioned on Monday. The front office and coaching staff have done an outstanding job when it comes to cultivating a locker room culture and chemistry that many say is one of the best in the NHL. It is evident to see how close this Golden Knights team is as it is currently constituted, so why risk potentially chipping away at that by moving one or two glue guys for the sake of one player?

Yes, you can make a strong argument that Reaves at $2,775,000 is overpaid for the role he plays as a fourth-line grinder, but you have to keep in mind that he is a pillar in that locker room plus he can also provide secondary scoring, as backed up by his 20 points (nine goals, 11 assists) and career-highs in goals, assists and points in 2018-19.

The same applies to Eakin. The third-line pivot is an excellent two-way forward for the Knights who excels in the faceoff circle, can kill penalties, log monster minutes if needed and he also achieved career-highs in goals (22) and points (41) last year.

Of course, Gusev could easily score more points for New Jersey than Eakin and Reaves combined but, and we risk repeating ourselves here, but that isn’t guaranteed and McPhee aired concerns over Gusev’s size and lack of speed. McPhee was absolutely right to stick by his convictions if he wasn’t convinced over the Russian’s ability to succeed in the NHL.

This topic isn’t going away anytime soon and it will only continue to gather momentum based on the level of success Gusev has with the Devils. But, it is important to remember that McPhee has a wealth of experience and knowledge when it comes to being a GM and, taking the whole body of work into account, he has done an exceptional job at the helm of the Vegas Golden Knights so far.

Yes, trading Nikita Gusev could turn out to be a horrific mistake in the not too distant future but, in sport and as is the case in life, you win some and you lose some and McPhee hasn’t lost too many battles in Vegas as of yet. He has to deal with the reality of living in a salary cap world and he made what he thought was the best decision possible based on the collective rather than the individual and, for that, he deserves at least some praise.