Vegas Golden Knights: Projecting the opening night roster

There is just one preseason game left for the Vegas Golden Knights but all eyes will already be on the 2019-20 season opener on Wednesday night.

The Vegas Golden Knights play host to the San Jose Sharks in the preseason finale later today, before taking on their bitter rivals at the T-Mobile Arena on Wednesday in the first game of the 2019-20 regular season.

Tonight’s matchup will act as a dress rehearsal for the main performance on Wednesday and, as such, the final exhibition game will inform us when it comes to having some idea as to what the opening night roster will look like.

However, after six preseason games we have a fairly good idea of how the lineup card will look against the Sharks on opening night and we are going to take a stab at predicting the makeup of the roster here.

Now, there are a couple of important factors to consider before we dive in. Mainly, it is fair to say that Vegas Head Coach Gerard Gallant has had to refer to Plan B already after losing both Alex Tuch and Cody Eakin in the penultimate preseason game on Friday against the LA Kings.

Tuch has a upper-body injury and is considered week-to-week so will miss opening night, while Eakin is also dealing with a upper-body injury but is currently day-to-day so has a chance of returning to full health in time for Wednesday.

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Cody Glass centered a second line also featuring Max Pacioretty and Mark Stone during morning skate on Saturday, while Ryan Reaves also practiced after missing the vast majority of preseason due to an injury sustained in summer workouts.

So, based on that knowledge, let’s try and predict exactly how that opening night lineup card will look for the Vegas Golden Knights…

The Forwards

Now, we’ll preface this by stating that we are doing this exercise based on the presumption that Cody Eakin won’t be healthy for Wednesday night and will instead be joining the injured Alex Tuch in the press box.

Vegas Head Coach Gerard Gallant has already made it clear that he won’t tinker with his formidable top six, and we believe he will stick to that statement for the opening portion of the regular season at least.

He did test Cody Glass out on the second line between Max Pacioretty and Mark Stone during morning skate on Saturday morning, with Paul Stastny dropping down to the third line with Valentin Zykov and Brandon Pirri as his wings.

It is safe to assume that Gallant will test out those new-look lines in the preseason finale against the San Jose Sharks tonight in order to gauge line chemistry and fit. Depending on how tonight unfolds, there could be a different look to that potent top six on Wednesday.

However, we believe that Gallant will want to start the year with a tried and tested lineup so, as a result, we can see Glass slotting in on the third line as center with Zykov on the left wing and Pirri on the opposite side. It would be a slightly inexperienced line but one that can be tweaked or changed during the course of the night if it doesn’t quite click.

Bottom line enforcer Ryan Reaves came through practice unscathed on Saturday and he could finally get some preseason action today, so he now appears an almost lock for the opening night roster on the fourth line with Tomas Nosek and William Carrier. If something unforeseen happens between now and Wednesday, Nosek could slot in on the right wing with bottom nine forward Nicholas Roy filling the center spot.

Here is how we think the forward unit will look against the San Jose Sharks on 2019-20 opening night:

Marchessault-Karlsson-Smith
Pacioretty-Stastny-Stone
Zykov-Glass-Pirri
Carrier-Nosek-Reaves

The Blueline

Let’s move on to the defensemen now and this one is more straightforward to work out. There are no injuries apart from rookie Zach Whitecloud, who probably wasn’t going to crack the opening night roster in the end anyway.

Shea Theodore is healthy and firing on all cylinders after battling testicular cancer during the off-season, while Nate Schmidt, Brayden McNabb, Jon Merrill and Deryk Engelland will make up the rest of the blueline.

That still leaves one spot left available, of course, and it is a decision that appears still up in the air going into tonight’s preseason finale. What started with five rookie defensemen slugging it out for one spot is going to finish with three battling it out in Jimmy Schuldt, Nic Hague and Jake Bischoff.

Schuldt and Hague look certain to be the frontrunners and both could have one final opportunity later today to really impress Head Coach Gerard Gallant and leave it all out on the ice in order to cement their name on the opening night roster.

There is one other caveat at play here and that is the fact that veteran Nick Holden has actually enjoyed a productive preseason, although personally, having the 32-year-old on the opening night lineup card would add some imbalance to the blueline.

With Engelland likely to slot in on the bottom defensive pairing, it would make more sense to pair him with a rookie and allow him to mentor either one of Schuldt or Hague, while preserving his legs for the penalty kill where he is most effective.

Hague brings a lot more to the table than Schuldt in our opinion in terms of being a more complete package. He is responsible in his own zone, can play hard in the corners, can play physical, is able to bring offensive upside and he boasts tremendous reach so, as a result, we think Hague just edges Schuldt for that one remaining roster spot on the blueline.

This is how we think the defensive pairings will take shape on opening night:

Merrill-Theodore
McNabb-Schmidt
Hague-Engelland

The Goalies

This is obviously already set in stone with Marc-Andre Fleury the undisputed starter while Malcolm Subban has already been confirmed as the backup for 2019-20. Fleury is still vintage Fleury and will probably get a lot of game time early given how tough the Golden Knights’ schedule is in October.

Subban, meanwhile, still hasn’t won over all of the Vegas fans yet and, with Garret Sparks and Oscar Dansk in the AHL with the Chicago Wolves and both having enjoyed solid preseasons, the pressure will be on Subban to impress when he is called upon which could be a lot more this year if the coaching staff decide to go down the road of load management with Fleury.

The Opening Night Lineup

So, taking into consideration everything we’ve covered above, let us present our Opening Night Lineup against the San Jose Sharks on Wednesday…

Marchessault-Karlsson-Smith
Pacioretty-Stastny-Stone
Zykov-Glass-Pirri
Carrier-Nosek-Reaves

Merrill-Theodore
McNabb-Schmidt
Hague-Engelland

Fleury
Subban

Healthy Scratches: Nicolas Roy, Nick Holden, Jimmy Schuldt 

So, there you have it, our projected opening night lineup. It could change, of course, depending on what happens in tonight’s preseason finale, but we don’t think we are too far off.

The only big question marks remaining surround the battle for that final spot on the blueline, and Cody Glass’ role on the lineup which will depend largely on whether or not Cody Eakin is healthy for opening night.

Overall, this Vegas Golden Knights team is absolutely stacked with talent and firepower and it packs enough quality and depth to be able to be one of the best teams in the Western Conference in the regular season, and then the endurance to embark on a deep postseason run.