There will only be a couple of roster spots up for grabs when the Vegas Golden Knights get back down to business for training camp.
We are only a couple of weeks out from Vegas Golden Knights training camp now and it is only a mere 18 days until the puck drops on the preseason opener against the Arizona Coyotes at T-Mobile Arena on Sep, 15.
After making a stunning run to the Stanley Cup Final in their inaugural year, the Golden Knights have since made a plethora of aggressive moves in order to stretch out their Stanley Cup window, bolstering their roster significantly with elite talents in the ilk of Paul Stastny, Max Pacioretty and Mark Stone.
Boasting a future Hall of Fame goalie in Marc-Andre Fleury, who is still at the peak of his powers, and the blueline in good hands with defensive lynchpins Shea Theodore and Nate Schmidt, this roster as it is currently constituted is pretty much set for 2019-20.
As such, there won’t be a slew of roster spots to slug it out for during training camp, with the focus for Head Coach Gerard Gallant to revolve around fine-tuning the fundamentals of this hockey team and continue to maximise the potential of every single player on the roster.
Gallant will also look to continue to hammer home how he wants his team to play, which is more heavy metal than a Mozart masterpiece. In other words, this team has forged an identity based around their ability to play a fast, gritty and in-your face type of game.
However, there will be a few roles that will need to be thrashed out throughout training camp, including who will complete the third-line and what rookie defenseman will win a roster spot for opening night against the San Jose Sharks on Oct, 2 at T-Mobile Arena.
We all know that preseason is an opportunity for an unknown quantity to burst onto the scene out of nowhere and make themselves an instrumental part of the team, while it is also a chance for certain players to hone their craft and start building some momentum ahead of the regular season.
We’ve picked out three players in particular, one forward, one defenseman and one goalie, who we think face a big preseason for a number of different reasons. Let’s start in the offensive zone with a player we have talked about a lot in recent weeks…