The Vegas Golden Knights will be without Alex Tuch for the first part of the season, after the winger underwent successful shoulder surgery. Tuch is expected to make a full recovery but has been given a recovery timeline of six months.
News such as this is a double-edged sword for Vegas fans. On the one hand, it’s a terrible loss to have Tuch missing for the first chunk of the season, as he’s grown into one of the Golden Knights' most valuable forwards and a bargain at $4.75 million. On the other, Vegas was already over the cap and still needed to sign restricted free agent Nolan Patrick (and likely add another depth defenseman). Tuch’s injury will hurt, but it also allows the Golden Knights to become cap compliant by moving him to long-term injured reserve, something GM Kelly McCrimmon directly referenced in his media availability Friday.
Still, it’s difficult to replace a player such as Tuch, who brings a blend of size and speed that is rarely found in the NHL. The 25-year-old forward posted 18 goals and 33 points in 55 games this season, despite playing most of the campaign outside of the top six. His two most common linemates at even-strength were Nicolas Roy and Tomas Nosek, not exactly the players most associated with offensive production. Still, Tuch’s 16 even-strength tallies were second on the Golden Knights behind only Max Pacioretty (18), showing just how important he is to the overall success of the Golden Knights.
The Golden Knights did seemingly prepare for this over the last few days, however, re-signing winger Mattias Janmark and acquiring Evgenii Dadonov from the Ottawa Senators. Dadonov might have had a bad season in 2020-21 but had previously scored at least 25 goals in three consecutive campaigns. He should essentially replace Tuch for the time being, although obviously brings a different style of play than the 6-4 freight train.
Every time the Golden Knights have a player removed from the roster or add some cap flexibility, the immediate speculation goes to Jack Eichel and his ongoing trade saga in Buffalo. Speaking to reporters including David Schoen of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, McCrimmon explained that he thinks this is the roster with which they’ll be going into training camp but noted that “anything can change with a phone call.”
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