Another in a long line of setbacks for Alex Tuch this year may have just persuaded the Vegas Golden Knights to alter their strategy at the Trade Deadline.
It was announced today by the Vegas Golden Knights that Tuch will be week-to-week with an upper-body injury after crashing hard into the boards during the 6-5 overtime win against the St. Louis Blues on Thursday.
This is the third significant injury suffered by Tuch this year, who also missed time at the start of the regular season with two upper-body injuries.
In total, Tuch has skated in just 42 games with eight goals and nine assists for 17 points with a -10 rating.
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And, while the Golden Knights Head Coach Peter DeBoer admitted that the injury could have been a lot worse, it should give the front office some food for thought.
After all, we are rapidly approaching the Trade Deadline on Feb. 24, and that will represent the final chance for the Golden Knights to bolster this roster ahead of the postseason.
It has become pretty clear by now that Vegas’ biggest priority is to acquire a puck-moving defenseman, someone who can greatly help to improve the transition game.
While that should still be at the top of the to-do list, Tuch’s latest setback should accelerate the need for a depth scorer.
A lack of secondary scoring has hurt this team all year and Tuch’s absence, however long that will be, will only test the depth of this roster further.
Of the 446 total points put up by the Golden Knights this year, only 98 have come from players who have played predominately on the bottom six.
And we have included Chandler Stephenson in that category, although the swiss-army knife type player has been a staple of the top six in the 10 games under Peter DeBoer.
That figure highlights the lack of production outside of the explosive top six, and the third line has been an albatross around Vegas’ neck for most of the year.
Therefore, you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to work out that the Knights need to address that if they are to embark on a deep postseason run.
Because, there will be more pressure and more attention paid to Vegas’ top two lines in the postseason, meaning that the bottom six will need to step up.
At the moment that is a scary thought given the lack of secondary scoring, and it will be on General Manager Kelly McCrimmon to try and rectify that at the Trade Deadline.
Granted, the Knights will have less than $3 million in cap space to play with, so they will need to move contracts off the book in order to bolster their treasure chest.
If they can deal the likes of Cody Eakin and Ryan Reaves in order to acquire one or two depth scorers that can provide an offensive punch, then that will be one major headache resolved.
And, with Tuch now sidelined again for the foreseeable, it is even more important that the front office ensure they bring in some help for their top six to try and generate some secondary scoring down the stretch.
Reacting to adversity in sports is a must and the Vegas Golden Knights must now approach the Trade Deadline with two clear needs in mind following the news that Tuch is week-to-week.