Leschyshyn, Cotter Speak on Contract Extensions

Vegas Golden Knights forwards Jake Leschyshyn and Paul Cotter were the latest members of the franchise to receive contract extensions.

Each forward was signed to a three-year extension with an AAV worth the league minimum.

Leschyshyn and Cotter each spoke with FOX5 Las Vegas on Wednesday to discuss their thoughts on being extended with the franchise for at least three more seasons.

“Very excited to have signed that deal,” Leschyshyn said. “I’ve been thinking about it all summer, it’s good to have that done before camp and prepare for this upcoming season, I’m excited.”

Cotter understood that it's rare to receive a multi-year extension when it comes to professional sports.

“It’s awesome, it’s great to know where you’re going to be working, for the next couple years,” Cotter said. “In this line of work, it doesn’t happen often, so I’m pretty excited, I’m pretty pumped up. It’s the team that drafted me, so they’ve always had value in me, so I’m excited to try and give back.”

With training camp coming up, Cotter is focused on showing he deserves a permanent spot with the big club next season.

“The next step is to be a full-time NHL player so, they expressed in the exit interview that they have a lot of faith in my play, it’s kind of up to me to show up to camp and show what I can do,” Cotter said. “I think they definitely believe in me based on this past contract and they reiterated the fact that I need to be in perfect shape and be ready to go. That last spot is up to me to take, so I’ll be ready to come into camp and that’s my goal is to take the spot.”

Leschyshyn played 41 games for the Golden Knights last season. He feels he has an idea of what his role could be for the team in 2022-23.

“First thing they said is come back and it starts at camp, make a good impression,” Leschyshyn said.” For me I think they are looking at me kind of being that fourth line guy and being able to contribute, maybe a bit more offensively. Whether it’s penalty killing or being better defensively there are a lot of areas in all aspects of the game that just need to be elevated for me to be more successful this upcoming year.”