2:35pm: Vegas GM George McPhee spoke to reporters, including those from SinBin.vegas, to clarify the Shipachyov situation. McPhee said that Shipachyov’s camp didn’t understand the situation at the beginning, but do now and that “he can’t [return to the KHL], he’s under contract with us.”
While that’s partly true, Shipachyov can’t just go home to play in the KHL, he could technically “retire” from the NHL to return home. It would void his contract, burn bridges and likely be the very last option. It’s more likely that he just waits out this period and eventually makes his return to the Golden Knights.
11:06am: The Vegas Golden Knights were backed into a corner to start the year, unable to trade any of their NHL defensemen. Unwilling to lose any on waivers for nothing, the team instead decided to send Vadim Shipachyov and Shea Theodore—two waiver-exempt players—to the minor leagues despite being obvious NHL talents. Shipachyov especially was an interesting choice, after the team signed him to a two-year $9MM contract this summer.
Now, according to a report out of Russia, Shipachyov’s representatives are already looking for a way out of the contract. The 30-year old KHL veteran isn’t with the AHL’s Chicago Wolves, despite being listed on their opening roster, and is also not travelling with the Golden Knights.
Obviously, this entire fiasco (if you can even call it that) could be resolved at any moment by an injury or opening a roster spot through trade or waivers. The Golden Knights could recall Shipachyov to the NHL, plug him into the lineup and forget anything even happened. But as long as he remains off the roster—Vegas is now 2-0 after their first two games—the more defecting back to Russia for the KHL and Olympics would seem attractive. Of course, that would mean sacrificing his salary with the Golden Knights.
There is no telling if that option is a realistic one, or if this is just a way of his camp expressing their frustration with the situation. While taking the idea of defection with a grain of salt, expect the speculation around the Golden Knights trade block to continue to increase.
This could be a very shrewd trade opportunity for many teams but Montreal in particular. Early scoring troubles coupled with a need for a top 6 C to help offset some pressure off Drouin and I doubt he’d cost much in a trade. Add in Montreal’s ample cap space, this is a great opportunity to add additional scoring for relatively cheap unless McPhee goes full Sakic mode and demands some crazy return.
Just curious, why would it be cheap to get him. Vegas has the clear upper hand.
1. Leave him in Chicago and If he decides to leave, they keep his rights and save his cap/money.
2. Trade someone else and bring him up. And that could be any of the 9 defense or 12 forwards they currently on the roster.
3. Waive someone if need be. Brad Hunt for example, even losing him for nothing is better than giving Shipachyov away for next to nothing.
In terms of trade, Shipachyov has little value right now. The only trade leverage Vegas has is to try and create a market for him but the salary cap complicates that for a lot of teams. I’m not saying they should trade him but it’s better than letting this issue stew. In my honest opinion, they should have just bit the bullet and waived one of the 9 D they have in the first place and avoided all of this.
As for that first option, they actually only save $1.025 million from his $4.5 cap hit while he’s assigned in Chicago. Unless I’m missing something, Shipachyov is not on an ELC or a two-way deal so they only save about a 1/4 of his cap hit while he’s down there. Same deal would apply if they work out a loan back to Europe. The other alternative for Europe is buying out his contract mid-season and letting him go back but he has to first pass through buyout/release waivers which is not a forgone conclusion, especially with teams like Montreal who have the cap space and the need(and past interest to boot) for him.
I don’t think trading one of the 9 D is an option at this point otherwise I believe McPhee would have already done so.
Shipachyov needs to be in the NHL. Vegas is looking dysfunction with their roster decisions
Speaking of burning bridges, I wouldn’t expect ANY future KHL players ever signing with Vegas again. As long as McPhee is GM, he’s pretty much guaranteed that.
You could be right on with your take on this, Hal! Outstanding comment & well said.
If the rangers could make the cap work, seems like an ideal target for a team playing with 2-3 legit centers.