Jake Leschyshyn has Gone Under the Radar for the Vegas Golden Knights
By Evan Mead
The Vegas Golden Knights have gotten a very good look at some of their prospects this season. After losing multiple forwards early on, there has been a lot of movement amongst some of their top prospects. Prospects like Jonas Rondbjerg, Paul Cotter, Pavel Dorofeyev, and Jack Dugan have gotten their shot to show the coaches what they offer. Although getting the call may be exciting, as everything they’ve worked for in their life is coming true, you still have to perform to stay at this level.
Before trading away star prospect, Peyton Krebs, he understood that ne needed to perform. While reflecting back at his time with the Vegas Golden Knights, I do hate myself for not giving him more credit. Krebs was performing every game at a very high level and was arguably the Knights best player. However, what really stands out is the strides he took each game. Every game he played in since the start of the season, he grew as a player. What does suck though is the fact that behind Krebs’ shadow, Jake Leschyshyn, has shown up just as much.
The Vegas Golden Knights have been have been very lenient in giving players chances and opportunities at the NHL level. Although, they wouldn’t originally have been given these chances, it’s been up to the players to perform and make the most of their opportunities.
The Vegas Golden Knights have given different opportunities to a lot of the different players in the league. I’ve stated that multiple times already so I won’t keep re-iterating myself but, I do want to keep putting to notice how well some of these prospects have done. For example, Jake Leschyshyn.
So far Jake Leschyshyn has played in 11 games with the Vegas Golden Knights, but hasn’t had a point. That’s really the only thing and/or argument I cant think of that would sway people he hasn’t accomplished anything since coming up with the organization. In contrast to that, Leschyshyn has been one of the best players for the Knights thus far into the season.
Despite not having a goal or an assist, he’s done all the right things on the ice to ensure he keeps a roster spot. He plays a high intensity speed game that can help keep the Vegas Golden Knights in the offensive zone. He doesn’t quite hold the same level of speed as Peyton Krebs, Chandler Stephenson, and William Karlsson, but does have quite a bit of speed to his name. It helps them create chances to score, but his line has lacked scoring which brings me to my next point.
Next, Leschyshyn shows that he very good vision with the puck on his stick. In multiple games this season he’s made multiple very good passes that have almost resulted in a goal, but has just missed his teammates on the back-door pass or simply a bad shot taken by his teammate. Not necessarily his fault on those, but does represent part of the reason he hasn’t put up any points so far.
Finally, he plays extremely well given what he’s asked to do: Forecheck. Leschyshyn has played very tough to start this season in the forechecking game and defensively. He has played in 11 games with the Vegas Golden Knights so far and has 9 blocked shots, 11 hits, and four takeaways. Averaging a hit a game, and almost a block per game as a forward is pretty impressive. It’d be nice to have points but the production will come in time.
His value and talent has seemed to go underrated thus far into the season, but I want to put it out there that it shouldn’t. When talking Krebs, he seemed underappreciated while he was with the Vegas Golden Knights. I don’t want to make the same mistake as I did with Leschyshyn. He deserves to be noticed for what’s he’s been able to do in his time with the Vegas Golden Knights.