Vegas Golden Knights: Main Takeaways from the Trade Deadline
It was another aggressive Trade Deadline for the Vegas Golden Knights who significantly improved in a number of areas.
Just a year removed from going all out to acquire Mark Stone at the Trade Deadline, the Vegas Golden Knights did it again as they underlined their desire to win right now.
After trading for two-time Stanley Cup champion Alec Martinez days before, the Knights went all in on Monday.
They sent ripples through the NHL by acquiring goalie Robin Lehner from the Chicago Blackhawks, automatically elevating their goaltending tandem to elite status.
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Vegas then sent a 2021 Fourth-Round pick to the Montreal Canadiens for forward Nick Cousins, before rounding off a busy day by re-signing veteran defenseman Nick Holden to a two-year deal with an average annual value of $1.7 million.
With their window open right now, the Vegas Golden Knights decided to do whatever was necessary in order to add more weapons to this team.
They are a better team now than what they were this time last week, and it will now be down to the coaching staff and the players to try and get the job done.
The front office have done their job for now in terms of bolstering the roster, and we had some takeaways from the NHL Trade Deadline…
Subban not getting it done
It became pretty clear on Monday that the front office were not satisfied with the performance of Malcolm Subban.
The backup goalie was dealt to the Chicago Blackhawks as part of the Robin Lehner trade, with the Golden Knights now able to boast the best goalie tandem in the NHL.
By trading for Lehner, the Knights gave themselves an insurance policy in that department while the Vezina Trophy finalist is a clear upgrade on Subban.
And reading between the lines from General Manager Kelly McCrimmon’s media briefing on Monday, Vegas had seen enough and decided a change was necessary.
Subban was 9-7-3 with a 3.18 Goals Against Average and a .890 Save Percentage this year, although you can argue that the goalie was the victim of being left out to dry by his defense on occasion.
However, Subban’s inconsistency put pressure on Marc-Andre Fleury to carry the bulk of the load this year with the future Hall of Famer starting 44 games so far this season.
There is no doubt that Lehner is an elite goalie and he will also be a safer bet should anything happen to Fleury down the stretch or in the postseason.
Lehner will also split the load with Fleury for the remainder of the regular season, something the Golden Knights obviously felt they couldn’t do with Subban.