Is Logan Thompson Ready to Step-up for the Golden Knights?

The Vegas Golden Knights are in a terrific spot in the Pacific Division despite coming off a loss to the Chicago Blackhawks last night. The warm welcome back that the Vegas fan base gave to Marc-Andre Fleury was something to behold. Fleury was a big part of the Knights success, but there is more to the story.

The Vegas Golden Knights decided to trade away Marc-Andre Fleury to the Blackhawks this past off-season. The decision that the Vegas organization made to trade Fleury and keep Lehner set a lot of Vegas Golden Knight fans irate. Losing the beloved goalie was hard for Knight fans to get over, but they have found a way to accept it and move on. However, things could be repeating themselves but this time for the better.

The Vegas Golden Knights have always been a trigger happy team, but that has caused for a lot of problems. After trading for Jack Eichel, the Vegas Golden Knights have found themselves once again, in a terrible spot. However, the solution could be as simple as trading a single player away.

The Vegas Golden Knights have always been known as a team to fear. Since coming into the league, the Knights have found a way to pursue and acquire every available star in the league. Well, okay- that was obviously an exaggeration. Nonetheless, the Knights have traded away multiple first-round draft selections in order to obtain players like Jack Eichel, Mark Stone, Nolan Patrick, and Max Pacioretty. However, there is a solution that I don’t think many people have considered.

How the Vegas Golden Knights Can Get Salary Cap Compliant

The Vegas Golden Knights, when they acquired Jack Eichel from the Buffalo Sabres, knew that they were going to be in some trouble with the cap yet again. Now, they could do something similar to what the Tampa Bay Lightning did with Nikita Kucherov this past year. By that I mean- keep him on IR until the playoffs since they are injured and you want them to be healthy. However, I don’t feel that is a reasonable solution given the Knights current situation.

With Mark Stone dealing with some injuries, Max Pacioretty on the IR after getting wrist surgery, and simply just knowing the Vegas Golden Knights injury problem this season- that’s not a great idea. So, what can they do? We’ll there are a couple of different Ideas. First, the Vegas Golden Knights Could trade away defenseman, Alec Martinez.

That Idea has actually become something a lot of people have begun talking about. With him dealing with injuries for most of this season. He hasn’t exactly lived up to his contract. Which, given the Knights situation, has to be considered. You can’t have him on the IR when he’s always hurt. You have to make something happen.

Second, you could trade Evgenii Dadonov and Mattias Janmark. Between the two wingers, the Knights would be able to clear $7,000,000 off the books and would be able to obtain a pick or two for them. Dadonov, who they just acquired this past off-season, hasn’t quite done what Knight fans have expected. Now, the expectations might have varied depending on the person, but I was personally expecting him to have a 30 goal season. Now, he may still get there but it doesn’t appear so.

As for Mattias Janmark, I expected him to produce and have a 20 goal season, maybe more depending on his role. With him primarily working the fourth line, he hasn’t really been in a role that would allow him to put up numbers like that. But, with him being on the fourth-line, he is very dispensable. The Knights have a ton of people who can play the fourth-line so what makes him stand out? Not much.

There are a lot more options, but for now there is one that stands out too me. It’s not been talked about much, but this one definitely seems to help in more ways than one- Trade Robin Lehner.

Why Should They Trade Robin Lehner?

When the Vegas Golden Knights traded for Jack Eichel, they took on roughly $5,000,000 more in contracts than they currently have. Which, as you can probably infer, that means they can’t activate him until you have money in the cap for him. Therefore, this needs to be addressed sooner than later.

Robin Lehner, although he’s been critiqued heavily after a rough stretch, has begun to get back on track. He started the season off really well, but fans still hated on him because he wasn’t Fleury. But, although they are right, they can’t deny just how well Lehner played for about a month and a half.

Looking ahead to now. He was previously hurt after Christmas break which gave Brossoit the nod to let us see what we actually have in Brossoit. He didn’t play great in Winnipeg, but has started to really figure things out with the Knights. Or so it appears. More so than that though, with Lehner’s injury, the Vegas Golden Knights also got to give prospect, Logan Thompson a start. So now circling back to why the Vegas Golden Knights should trade goalie, Robin Lehner.

Robin Lehner has played well this season when everything is considered. More than that, he’s played better than probably a quarter of the goalies in the league. So what does that mean for the Knights? Well it means that he may hold some trade value around the league and get this- he makes $5,000,000 AAV. Almost the exact amount that the Knights need to clear. But the question needs to be asked: Is Logan Thompson ready to actually become a NHL goalie?