Vegas Golden Knights’ GM George McPhee had a conference call with the media today, and was candid about many topics. Most of the call had to do with Vadim Shipachyov, the newest (and second) member of the Golden Knights. McPhee made it clear that Shipachyov will play in their top-six and get a lot of ice-time.
McPhee also put into words what many people have thought about the upcoming expansion draft:
He’s a skilled center iceman. They’re very, very, very hard to find. We are going to need skill, and trying to get that position in the expansion draft would be difficult.
While there are going to be interesting players available, finding top-line skill will be extremely rare in the expansion draft. Some may dispute if Shipachyov has that, but it’s clear he can at least keep up with top players.
- McPhee also announced that Shipachyov’s deal doesn’t include a no-movement clause, for one simple reason: he doesn’t give those out. The GM said that he doesn’t negotiate those, but in today’s NHL where they are almost automatically included for long-term deals, he may have to soften his stance at some point in the future.
- The Vegas GM admitted that he has been in contact with Evgeni Dadonov, but isn’t even convinced at this point that he’s coming to the NHL. It does seem like Vegas has a lot of interest if he decides to change leagues, as SinBin relays an answer regarding Dadonov: “it wouldn’t hurt to have other Russian players here.”