The Vegas Golden Knights have found their own identity in the NHL admirably quickly. The club, which only joined the legendary expansion team seven years ago, has not set out to build its own thing calmly and humbly, but has wanted to brazenly rush straight to the front row.
Las Vegas is known as a sinful gambling oasis that pulsates around the clock, where the classic American value world – only the winners are remembered – lives strong. The Golden Knights haven’t lost either. The club didn’t come to the NHL to build a long-term project for their own boys, but clearly wanted him on the locker immediately.
There are screens too. Vegas made a sensational run to the Stanley Cup Finals in its first season and has since proven that it was no fluke. After one gap year, the team played two years in a row in the final game of the conference, i.e. in the semi-finals of the Stanley Cup. Last summer, it celebrated the first championship in its club history.
The rise to the elite has been incredible.
– In the NHL, there is a lot of talk about who has what kind of young players. When Vegas has built that thing, for example, the booking rounds of the first round do not interest them at all. The goal is to constantly win here and now. When you start bringing in young people, it easily takes 4-6 years, and it doesn’t guarantee anything, ‘s ice hockey expert Ismo Lehkonen says.
There is only one Vegas first round reservation for 2017-2021 left. Vegas has had six first-round picks in these years, one of which it traded, and four of the five players have also been released to the world in player trades. There is only one left Brendan Brissonwho has played 13 games in the NHL this season.
The 2022, 2023, 2025 and 2026 first-round picks went out into the world even before Vegas could even use them.
Very few clubs in the NHL work this aggressively, and if they do, usually only during the so-called championship window. Only the future will show how far Vegas is able to take its extraordinary story and style in every way. One can think about whether player trades and free market churning have the opportunity to renew repeatedly and at the same time remain competitive.
Rage tore
Vegas’ rapid rise to the elite hasn’t bred bitterness, but the way the club stretches the rules has. At the latest on Friday, the media and summer brain finally burst at the seams, when the Golden Knights once again made Vegas the NHL’s transfer deadline. It was moved by a star player by Mark Stone to the list of long-term injured (Long Term Injured Reserve) and thus got ten million to spend on player trades.
When a player is placed on the long-term injured list, his salary is not counted against the 83.5 million salary cap.
In the playoffs, the salary cap does not apply, so the club management can thus strengthen the team and practically raise their own salary cap. Stone’s annual income that counts against the salary cap is ten million, so the LTIR command gives Vegas a large amount of money to use.
Vegas had already acquired a power forward Anthony Manthan from Washington as well as a quality defender by Noah Hanifin From Calgary, when it moved captain Stone to the long-term injured list and made another big bang: from San Jose, the Czech player Tomas Hertl moved to Vegas just before the transfer window closed.
In part of the media and social media, there was a huge rage because Stone was moved to the so-called LTIR list in the spring for the third year in a row. The cause of the latest injury was said to be a ruptured spleen.
– In Finland, they always say that there should be a fair game. There are no fair game prizes to be awarded there. If there is such a cheekless loophole in the collective agreement and Vegas takes advantage of it, I don’t blame it. Others have the opportunity to act in the same way. The competition is so fierce there that the gray area is always used in the office and on the ice, so that one’s own team gets an advantage, Lehkonen sees.
In the midst of all the summer rage, you could occasionally forget that Vegas didn’t invent this bike. Already in 2015, Chicago strengthened its team because it was placed on the long-term injured list in the winter Patrick Kane. In the summer, the team raised the bar. In the early 2020s, Tampa also played around with LTIR commands several times. Tampa celebrated the championship twice.
– The winner always has the right answers, Lehkonen laughs.
– In the case of Stone, we are talking about a player who takes, gives and goes between a lot. Obviously, there are bumps. Such a rehabilitation period comes in handy. You can get the seats in order with it and it will be fresh when the games continue. Nikita Kucherov (Tampa) used to do a couple of months of hard rehabilitation in dark halls, so no one could see, and he literally flew in the playoffs, Lehkonen recalls.
2023-2024:
To the list: 4 March 2023
From the list:
2022-2023:
To the list: 20.2.2023
From the list: 18 April 2023
2021-2022:
To the list: 14 February 2022
From the list: 20 April 2022
How is the loophole blocked?
According to North American sources, the operating methods of Vegas or previously Tampa have rubbed off on the offices of some clubs, but the pride of the gambling city alone does not make player deals.
It takes two to tango and someone at the other end always answers the phone and signs the proposed player trade.
The situation is still peculiar in that Vegas may very well be operating in the playoffs with a salary cap more than 10 million higher than the opponent. It may be that the topic at hand will be returned to during the next collective bargaining negotiations. The current contract runs until September 2026.
– Everyone should be on the same page with the salary cap. Somehow, things should be built so that even in the playoffs, everyone would start from the same line. Players can be acquired, but the playing composition of each team should fit under the salary cap, Lehkonen’s line.
It has also been suggested that the player who missed the last game of the regular season should not appear in the first game of the playoffs either.
– It’s rubbish. If you have put yourself in a good position by playing, so that you can beat the best players for two or three games before the playoffs, you must have the right to that.
Lehkonen reminds us that inequality in the playoff salary cap is not the only problem in the series.
– Some of the teams suffer because taxation is different in different places. It’s a completely different thing to play in Montreal or Florida, if we’re talking about taxation and the amount left in the hand. However, no one complains about this. In this regard, inequality should be eliminated. This matter is for the owners to decide, but are there people willing to do something about it. I doubt it.
Updated 7:45 p.m.: Corrected the story that Stone got out of LTIR commission on 4/20/2022, not 2/20/2022.