The Vegas Golden Knights are currently fourth in the Pacific Division behind the Calgary Flames, Los Angeles Kings, and Edmonton Oilers. However, given how injury prone this team has been all year, it’s hard to really think they would be in the playoffs.
The Golden Knights have had key contributors all over the board miss games due to injury, and therefore, they’ve had a lot of prospects get their chance in the big leagues. But, at what point does it get to be too much? That’s the millon dollar question that we just had answered.
The Golden Knights just announced that they traded Evgenii Dadonov to the Anaheim Ducks. But what was the meaning behind the trade?
The Golden Knights are in a position to compete now when their roster is healthy. With Jack Eichel, Max Pacioretty, Mark Stone, Alex Pietrangelo, and many more talented players, this team was built to compete for the Stanley Cup. However, plans had changed after all those players got hurt and they traded for Jack Eichel.
Unable to activate Jack Eichel given their financial situation, they were prepared to keep Mark Stone on the LTIR till they got to the playoffs. But as we all know, that hasn’t quite aged well.
Since placing Mark Stone on the LTIR and activating Jack Eichel, they are playing under .500 hockey. That goes to show that they need to get their best players back on the ice and that meant clearing some cap space at the deadline. In knowing that, Kelley McCrimmon traded Evgenii Dadonov and a conditional 2024 second-round pick to the Anaheim Ducks.
In return for Evgenii Dadonov and the 2024 second-round draft pick, the Golden Knights will receive forward, Ryan Kesler and defenseman, John Moore from the Ducks.