Could Jon Merrill be Vegas Golden Knights’ version of Brendan Smith?

Hardcore hockey fans were given a treat last week when the Vegas Golden Knights played Jon Merrill as a forward in a game against the Philadelphia Flyers.

With Jonathan Marchessault down with a lower-body injury and Tomas Nosek attending the birth of his child, the Vegas Golden Knights were left shorthanded in the forward department.

They could have called a forward up from the AHL, of course, but Head Coach Gerard Gallant had already cooked up a hell of a surprise in his head.

As the rest of the team returned to the locker room following morning skate, Jon Merrill stayed on the ice with backup goaltender Malcolm Subban.

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Merrill was due to be a healthy scratch against the Flyers but Gallant had other ideas, proving that old dogs can come up with new tricks.

Blessed with solid skating ability and good hockey sense, Gallant figured that Merrill would be a good alternative on the fourth line. The defenseman’s 6’3″ 205 lbs frame probably also helped to sway that decision too.

So, for the first time since his junior hockey days with the USNTDP program, Merrill lined up as forward.

He slotted in on the left wing of the fourth line alongside Nicolas Roy and Ryan Reaves and, although there were some growing pains, Merrill equipped himself well and did what was asked of him.

And, a strange and hectic day was complete when, at 11:27 in the first period, Merrill recovered from a slip in-front of the net to seize on a Roy rebound before beating Flyers goaltender Carter Hart with a filthy move on the backhand.

It was a crowning moment for Merrill who hadn’t scored this year up until that point, and he was also on the ice for just three scoring chances against in 9:10 minutes of total ice time.

So, does Jon Merrill have a future as a forward in the NHL with the Vegas Golden Knights?

Okay, before you accuse me of losing the plot, there is precedent for this and you only have to go and look in the Metro Division for a recent example.

Brendan Smith, brother of Vegas forward Reilly, was entrenched in hockey no-man’s land with the New York Rangers and his future looked unclear after a rough 2017-18 season that included getting into a fight with a teammate while with the Hartford Wolf Pack in the AHL.

However, he trimmed down and reported to Training Camp in 2018-19 ready to work, and he certainly made an impression on Rangers Head Coach David Quinn.

So much so that, in order to keep him in the lineup, Quinn began using Smith as a forward during the latter stages of last year.

It is an intriguing experiment that has carried into this season and, to be fair, it is one that has actually paid off so far.

And it is a unique situation given that Smith also switches back to his day job as a defenseman by killing off penalties.

Smith has excelled during this new normal, though, and playing as a forward has really breathed new life into his NHL career.

Granted, he doesn’t produce a bucketload of offense but he doesn’t need to because he’s relied on more for his physicality on the fourth line.

Smith is also a master when it comes to drawing penalties, he’s had over 21 as a forward, while he is averaging around 10:25 minutes of average total ice time per game this year.

So, using Smith as the example, could the Vegas Golden Knights look to do the same with Jon Merrill?

Again, you may think me mad but it is a conversation worth having in the light of Merrill’s cameo as a forward.

After all, the Golden Knights have finally found some success with their defensive pairings in a new system and you shouldn’t really fix what isn’t broken.

So, as it stands, Merrill is the odd-man out and that situation could only worsen if the Knights (as expected) look to acquire a puck-moving defenseman at the Trade Deadline.

Playing Merrill as a fourth-line forward would keep him in the thick of the action, while providing key injury cover.

Plus, with Cody Glass week-to-week with a lower-body injury, there is a spot up for grabs for Merrill.

We did a story earlier on why William Carrier should be kept on the third line given his creativity and vision, so why not plug Merrill in on the bottom line?

As already mentioned, he’s a big body who can skate well and battle hard along the boards, all intangibles you need as a bottom line grinder.

I concede that it seems a bit of a far-fetched prospect but Brendan Smith has proven that it is an experiment that can pay off handsomely.

And versatility is important in major sports, especially in the modern day. If Merrill can develop into a swiss-army knife type player that can plug in and play anywhere, and do it well, then that is going to be beneficial for both player and team.

Although I don’t think it is likely, I think the Vegas Golden Knights could learn something from the New York Rangers and Brendan Smith and consider using Jon Merrill as a forward more often.

I mean, one goal in one game playing in that position? You can’t argue with that.