You didn’t expect the Vegas Golden Knights to be silent on the first night of the NHL draft Friday, did you?
General manager Kelly McCrimmon went into the evening without a first-round pick, meaning the entire broadcast could have gone by without the Knights even being mentioned by name.
But come on. Who are we kidding?
The Knights made a big splash early, shipping restricted free agent and leading goal scorer Pavel Dorofeyev to the New York Rangers for a package that eventually became five picks.
They used one of those selections to draft Finnish defenseman Juho Piiparinen, but don’t waste a lot of time and effort learning about him.
We know how this works.
McCrimmon is stockpiling assets he can take back into his lair until he finds the opportunity to use them to strike like a cobra as he hunts his prey. It’s more likely the teenager will be flipped for a star than develop into one in this organization.
But what exactly McCrimmon has in mind is anyone’s guess. It might not happen this week or even this month. The Knights could go into training camp or the season as quiet as the outlet mall in Primm.
Fans might even start to question whether this is the year the Knights decide to sit tight.
But rest assured, there is a plan.
If you doubt McCrimmon and president of hockey operations George McPhee have multiple routes they are considering taking that can help get the team over the hump, you haven’t been paying attention.
This organization has taken advantage of every edge it can find and every angle it can exploit to keep the roster competitive year after year after year.
It is coming off a third Stanley Cup Final appearance in nine seasons by constantly mortgaging the future in favor of the present.
This year will be no different.
But they needed at least some assets to help make that happen, and McCrimmon got a head start on that process on Friday. The Knights — who entered the day without a first-round pick because of a previous splashy trade and didn’t have a second-round pick because of John Tortorella’s temper tantrum — not only added some selections but took the first step in alleviating their cap pressure.
Dorofeyev was a key player for several reasons, not the least of which was his ability to be a willing shooter on a team full of brilliant playmakers. He also was a homegrown talent and a force on the power play.
But the Knights weren’t going to be able to afford him, and they did as well as they could have hoped considering the circumstances.
Now they can start to go to work.
There is some big game on the market to hunt. And while Jason Robertson might be out of the team’s price range and the Dylan Larkin situation is getting more odd by the day, a potential path to an acquisition like that is slightly more clear than it was Friday afternoon.
Could the Knights make a few additional moves to secure more assets and more cap space that could put them in the conversation for one of those major moves?
Potentially.
It’s going to take creativity and financial gymnastics, but McCrimmon and McPhee are like the Simone Biles and Suni Lee of the salary cap.
Sorry for that visual.
As long as they are there, however, the Knights will find a way. It’s what they do.
Traditional thinking is that the organization will have to pay the price at some point. That you can’t just keep kicking the can down the road before eventually feeling the pain of never worrying about the future.
Traditional thinking has teams such as the Red Wings selling off their star captain after a total of one playoff series in more than a decade with his hometown team.
Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on X.
