Jack Dugan (8) takes a shot on goal during Vegas Golden Knights Training Camp at City National Arena in Henderson Friday, Sept. 24, 2021.
Sunday, Sept. 26, 2021 | 2 a.m.
There are three kinds of players at Golden Knights training camp.
There are the veteran roster mainstays. Mark Stone and Max Pacioretty and Alex Pietrangelo could forget how to tie the laces of their skates and there’s nothing that could prevent them from making the team.
There are the junior players gaining experience for the future. Even if they blow the doors off the preseason games, recent draft picks like Lukas Cormier and Daniil Chayka have little chance of making the team.
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Then there’s the bubble, last year’s AHL players looking to prove they’re ready to take the next step of their careers. Players like Peyton Krebs, Jack Dugan, and Ben Jones — these are the players to whom preseason games mean the most, and who will be looking to stand out the most when the seven-game exhibition slate begins at 7 p.m. against the San Jose Sharks at T-Mobile Arena.
“It’s a big step for me in my career, and I’m just hoping to show what I can do and what I do well and try to do that night in and night out,” Dugan said.
Dugan, 23, is a forward Vegas and its fans have known about for awhile. He was taken in the fifth round of the inaugural draft, then went on to dominate college hockey, leading the NCAA in points two seasons ago. He had a strong season with the Sliver Knights, registering 33 points in 37 games.
In reality, Jones and Dugan and almost everyone who wasn’t on last year’s team is facing long odds of cracking the roster for the Oct. 12 opener. The Golden Knights brought back all six regular defensemen, and replaced the forwards they lost with NHL players. The 20 who will play on opening night likely won’t contain many surprises.
That’s what the preseason is for.
The pandemic took a lot of things away from those in the hockey world and outside of it, but it also took away chances for the NHL coaches to evaluate the younger players in person.
Before camp, coach Pete DeBoer hadn’t seen much, if at all, of players like Jones or Dugan. Even if they start the year in Henderson, it’s good to make a strong showing now for when an NHL player inevitably needs an injury replacement down the road.
“I think in a perfect world, especially some of our veteran veterans, they don’t need to play more than three or four of the seven games,” DeBoer said. “It's a chance to see some of the young kids that are knocking on the door.”
DeBoer said he wants to spend the early preseason games evaluating the players he hasn’t seen much of, which includes new additions to the NHL squad like Nolan Patrick, Evgenii Dadonov and Laurent Brossoit, but also the younger players as well as veteran Ian McCoshen, who is here on a Professional Tryout (PTO) and remained on the ice for extra work long after everyone had left.
The Golden Knights play tonight, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday before wrapping up their preseason slate on Oct. 5, 7 and 9. Those final three games very well could be veteran-heavy as the NHL team ramps up its intensity ahead of the regular season’s opening night.
These games ultimately don’t count in the standings, but they’re perhaps the biggest games of some of these players’ hockey careers. The outcome may not matter, but the process sure does, and there will be a group of hungry young players looking to make an impact when Vegas takes the ice tonight.
“It’s nice to get back to the swing of things, get back to a normal camp and just kind of show that I want to put my name in the mix and don’t want to be an AHL guy for life,” said Jones, a 22-year-old forward. “I’m looking to just kind of prove myself and prove why I’m here.”
