It’s kind of fitting the Dallas Stars and Vegas Golden Knights are meeting on opening night, because both teams have a bit of a hoarding problem on the back end.
While the Stars have mismanaged eight defenders over the past two seasons and have eight again heading into this season, Vegas at this point has nine active defender defenders and three goalies heading into opening night. With 23 players, they only have room for 11 forwards at this moment.
On top of that the one defender you’d like to see playing every night, Shea Theodore, is in the AHL right now to make room for Vegas to get to 23 players.
So essentially it’s 10 defenders that George McPhee has to pair down before the Golden Knights open their inaugural season here on Friday.
McPhee is also down a roster spot because he claimed Malcolm Subban on waivers and will be carrying three goalies. McPhee said he doesn’t plan on waiving Subban again, he’s afraid he’d get claimed by another team (his old team the Boston Bruins in particular) leaving even less wiggle room.
(And does that mean Vegas will trade a goalie soon? Marc-Andre Fleury is the new face of their franchise and a ticket draw, and Calvin Picard is a good young goalie and future starter. Wouldn’t you want to hold onto both of those pieces?)
It’s going to be interesting how Vegas handles this situation over the next 24 hours before their morning skate in Dallas. We can assume Vadim Shipachyov will be recalled and be the 12th forward, but will they have space for Theodore on opening night?
No matter what happens, Cody Eakin will be making his return to Dallas as a visiting player.
Notes from last night
– The Winnipeg Jets are one of the teams I could easily see winning the Central Division. They have a great young core and it’s one of the teams I find myself watching more than other simply for entertainment value. But they also have the worst goalie in the Central Division, and Steve Mason allowed five goals on 20 shots in a 7-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on opening night. Could just be a one-game hiccup, but it makes me nervous about picking Winnipeg as a playoff team.
– Speaking of entertainment, Connor McDavid opened the season with a hat-trick in a 3-0 win against the Calgary Flames on Wednesday. McDavid by himself is an incredible talent, but playing him on a line with Leon Draisaitl almost seemed unfair to the Flames at times.
Housekeeping Note
– The mailbag comes out tomorrow. Get your questions in by replying to this Tweet:
Mailbag time. Fire away with #GoStars questions on players, prospects, lines, the season, or really anything else you want answered.
— Sean Shapiro (@seanshapiro) October 4, 2017
Today’s Schedule
The Stars practice at 10:30 today in Frisco, it is open to the public. If you are trying to watch the skate you should move quickly, because it’s going to be a shorter one after the team had longer practices on Tuesday and Wednesday.
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