Vegas Golden Knights: What to do with third line with Glass out

There has been some positive news for the Vegas Golden Knights regarding the health of Cody Glass, although they will still need to figure out what to do with the third line.

I think everyone associated with the Vegas Golden Knights feared the worse on Saturday when Glass got tangled up with St. Louis Blues veteran Jay Bouwmeester, before dropping to the ice after his knee buckled.

It was a horrible looking injury and people who are more well versed in sporting injuries than myself seemed convinced that Glass had potentially torn his knee ligaments.

That would have been the worst case scenario possible, fears that were alleviated slightly when Jesse Granger of The Athletic reported that Glass had only suffered bone bruising.

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The official verdict from the Golden Knights came yesterday when Vegas Head Coach Gerard Gallant stated that Glass was “week-to-week” with a lower-body injury.

Now, according to medical experts on Twitter, bone bruising can still take a while to recover from and, as such, it could be around a month until Glass is ready to return.

That leads us to the million dollar question:

What does the third line look like without Cody Glass in the lineup?

That is a very good question because there were some other notable injury updates to come out of the Vegas Golden Knights camp on Monday.

Firstly, Jonathan Marchessault participated in full practice and, although he’s still considered day-to-day, he seems to be on the cusp of a return and could play against the Pittsburgh Penguins tonight.

That is significant because Alex Tuch, who has been a third line wing for much of the year, has been playing on the top line in Marchessault’s absence.

Once Marchessault does return, though, Tuch will be bumped back down to the third line and will slot in for Glass.

But there is another caveat at play here. Cody Eakin, who hasn’t played since Nov. 29 with an upper-body injury, was finally out of the white no-contact jersey on Monday and seems to be edging closer to a comeback.

Once the center is healthy and ready to return then that will cause a further shakeup of the lines, with Eakin likely to slot in as the third line center.

That would bump Paul Stastny back up to the second line and, as a result, Chandler Stephenson would come back into the bottom six.

In that scenario, it is likely that Eakin would center a third line with Stephenson and Tuch as his wings, with William Carrier going back to the fourth line and Nicolas Roy becoming a healthy scratch.

I have a problem with that, however. As detailed in a piece I did on Monday, Carrier has shown his creative vision and silky mitts in his last two outings, producing two stunning highlight-reel plays in particular.

As a result, I would actually keep Carrier on a third line with Stephenson as the center and Tuch on the right wing, with Eakin centering the fourth line between Nosek and Reaves.

After all, the Golden Knights are in dire need of secondary scoring and a third line blessed with Stephenson’s speed, Carrier’s toughness and natural skill and vision, along with Tuch’s wicked release, could have a lot of potential as a line that can create a plethora of high-danger scoring chances.

It is a line combination that could be worth a look for the Knights and, given that not a lot else has worked on the third line this season, what is the harm in experimenting with something new?

Granted, things will become more complicated when Cody Glass is healthy enough to return but, in his absence, the Vegas Golden Knights have the opportunity to try and finally solve their secondary scoring woes.

An opportunity they should take advantage of.