[dannibalcorpse]

With mere weeks to go in the season, GMs across the league were working the phones to try and find that final piece to put their team over the top come playoff time. The final trade calls are in, and we saw some big deals go down.

The Dalls Stars, 3rd in the Western Conference, moved to bolster their back end by pushing underachieving 25 year old RW Brett Ritchie (65 GP, 7-13-20) to the Red Wings in exchange for D Jonathan Ericsson, who’s put up 13 goals and 16 assists in 65 games so far this year. Columbus and Philly swapped D-men in an effort to shake up the team - Radko Gudas (66 GP, 4-11-15) flies west to Columbus, while David Savard (33 GP, 5-6-11) heads to the City of Brotherly Love. Columbus made another big move, sending D Igor Golovkov (18 GP, 2-3-5) to the Lightning in exchange for 26 year old center Vladislav Namestinkov (60 GP, 6-10-16). Jarmo Kekkalainen is hoping a change of scenery will help spark Namestinkov’s offensive potential. The last big name to be seeing a change of address was Dion Phaneuf - the mercurial defender will find himself on the playoff bubble in New Jersey, as the Devils sent Erik Gudbranson and AHL goalie Matt Tomkins (second trade this year) back to Ottawa.

The Golden Knights made a few changes to the team in the weeks leading up to the deadline. In a move meant to thin the D-corps a bit, they sent AHL D Oliver Galipeau to the Ducks in exchange for a 4th and a 6th round pick. They also picked up RW Beau Bennett from the Devils in exchange for a defenseman who had been playing on their ECHL affiliate, Aaron Haydon. Bennett had put up a strong 27-32-59 line in 57 games with Albany, and will be playing on the main roster now that Vegas has picked him up. Another deal saw them move 25 year old RW Riley Barber (6 GP, 2-0-2 with Vegas) to the Bruins in exchange for 21 year old RW Jack Becker, who’d put up a monster 29-46-75 line in 49 ECHL games. Becker reported to the AHL team in Lowell shortly after the trade.

GM Dan Hampton also signed a few free agents to add depths on the wings - RW Joseph Williams had been playing in the CIS, and signed a 3 year entry level contract with a $660K AAV. Hampton also picked up RW JJ Piccinich, signing him to a 2 year, $1.85M two-way deal. Piccinich, a former first round pick, is still only 22 and had been playing with the Grand Rapid Griffins. Piccinich had 14 goals and 22 assists in 50 games with Grand Rapids.

Hampton stumbled into one of his two big moves, though - Nashville inexplicably waived goalie Mikko Koskinen, despite his sterling 33-10-4 record, his 2.36 goals-against-average, and .918 SV%. Never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Hampton jumped on the claim and Koskinen is now a Golden Knight. His other big addition was acquired through less surprising means - Hampton traded 23 year old D Shea Theodore (8-24-32 in 36 AHL games), C Frederik Gauthier (scoreless in 16 NHL games), and the 4th round pick acquired earlier to the Edmonton Oilers for D Darnell Nurse (66 GP, 8-15-23). “We needed another guy who was a solid defensive presence,” Hampton relayed to reporters shortly after the trade was announced. “Darnell is a younger guy, a guy who can be here for years, and he’s a guy who’s as focused on keeping goals out of our net as he is in getting the puck past the other goalie.” Rumblings had been coming out of the front office that Hampton was disappointed with the play of D Jordan Subban (64 GP, 2-6-8) and Julius Honka (65 GP, 6-16-22) - two blue-liners who were expected to bring strong offensive games to the team while sacrificing some defensive integrity. Instead, both players have had poor possession numbers and haven’t brought the scoring touch both showed in their rookie campaign last year.

All in all, “not as good as last year” has to be the running theme across the Golden Knights this year. Entering the trade deadline with a 19-36-10 record, they are all but eliminated from the playoffs with 17 games left on the schedule. The offense has shown some signs of life but still struggles on a regular basis - Ondrej Palat leads the team with 21 goals and 44 points, while linemate Tyler Johnson paces the team with 28 assists and has thrown in 40 points. One of the few recent bright spots has been the reactions of both Jakob Silfverberg and Josh Ho-Sang to their swapping of lines - Silfverberg now sports a 13-19-32 line on the year, and Ho-Sang has pulled himself up to a 5-13-18 line. Rookie Jordan Greenway has come back from missing 19 games to put up a strong 15-8-23 line in 48 games played, while Frank Vatrano has put up a strong 4-6-10 line in 28 games. Mikko Koskinen has struggled somewhat since coming over, running up a 1-5-2 line with a 3.75 GAA and .898 SV%. Craig Anderson has been pretty solid overall, despite what his 11-20-5 line would tell you. Anderson has brought his goals-against down to 3.02 and his save percentage up to .915.

With about four weeks left in the year, not much is left for the Golden Knights except to play out the string. Coach Hampton has said he will use this opportunity to check out some of the newer players he’s acquired in the past month, as well as hopefully bringing up some AHLers to see what potential they might offer. Even with the down year, Hampton has said he’s pleased with the way the franchise is progressing, and that he expected to hit some road bumps along the way. “You know, I don’t want to say last year was a fluke, but how many teams pull off what we did? I feel like the season we’re having now is more in line with what people expected out of us last year, and that’s fine. If we can keep developing the prospects we have, and make smart decisions come July 1st, I know we’ll be right where I want us to be in the very near future.”