Sam Morris / Las Vegas News Bureau
Golden Knights goalie Marc-Andre Fleury signs autographs before the home opener Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2017, against the Arizona Coyotes at the T-Mobile Arena.
Thursday, Nov. 2, 2017 | 2 a.m.
The Sun's Golden Knights beat writer, Jesse Granger, sat down with Case Keefer to answer your questions about the team.
You can watch the full Q&A session above, and you can read a few of the answers here:
The biggest question surrounding the Golden Knights, which was asked by multiple readers on both Twitter and Facebook, is the status of star goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, who has missed the last seven games nursing a concussion he received on Oct. 13.
Jesse Granger: That’s the million-dollar question with this team right now, and with concussions it’s so tough to tell. If it’s a groin injury or an ACL or something like that, the doctors can tell you it’s going to be this long to recover, but with a concussion they're going to test him every day, he’ll go through the concussion protocol and eventually he'll be fine.
What we do know, is (head coach) Gerard Gallant has told us once (Fleury) does hit the ice it will be four to five days before he’s ready to play. When we asked Gallant if it will be months, days or weeks he laughed and said it should be days. Gallant said (Fleury won’t be ready) this week, but it could be the week after that.
It’s all up in the air right now but I would say I don’t expect him to miss an extended portion of the season.
@TheBrittWithAnI on Twitter: From what we have witnessed from Shea Theodore, who would you like to see him on the ice with?
Jesse Granger: Shea came up and made his NHL debut Tuesday night against the Rangers. He didn’t have a great game but it was his first game in the NHL after starting the season in the American Hockey League.
Theodore is a very offensive defenseman, so when he’s out there he’s almost like a fourth forward on the ice. So what you want to do is pair him with a safer, more defensive guy who's not that worried about jumping into the play. I think a guy who is perfect for that is Deryk Engelland, who is a veteran guy who knows not to get too far up and can avoid getting caught with odd man rushes.
What surprised me was that Tuesday night Theodore played with Colin Miller, who is the other offensive defenseman. The Golden Knights gave up six goals and two of them were with that pairing on the ice and they were partially to blame.
I see Shea Theodore ending up with a more defensive guy like Engelland or maybe a Luca Sbisa.
@tdpnate on Twitter: When will we realistically see Cody Glass in a Knights game?
Jesse Granger: So obviously a lot of people are excited for Cody Glass. He was the first draft pick in Golden Knights history when they took him No. 6 overall. He returned to juniors to the Portland Winterhawks after having a pretty good preseason.
I think he’s actually good enough to play in the NHL right now, but I don’t think it’s worth wasting one of his years on an entry-level contract. He signed a three-year entry level contract worth $925,000 per year, but the Golden Knights don’t have to start using those years until three years from now if they want.
Why develop him on the Golden Knights and then in three years you’ll have to pay him a huge contract, when you delay that and actually get him for six years? If the Golden Knights were in win-now mode he’d be there now, but I think realistically the soonest we could see him in Vegas is next year. If Glass comes into training camp and absolutely blows everyone away, and is the best center on the ice, he’ll end up on the Golden Knights.
@FunKelly on Twitter: Since most of the Golden Knights haven't played together before, to what do you attribute the ability to have gelled as a team so quickly?
Jesse Granger: I think we all overestimated how much that would affect this team early on.
The truth is hockey systems and the schemes they run are all very similar. I was talking to one of the players and he basically told me it’s just a difference of verbiage. The words that the coaches use are different and once you get that down the plays they run are pretty much the same.
Plus, add to the fact that most of these guys were not star players who had a set line that they were on every night. The third and fourth lines are always in flux with guys going up and down (to the AHL) and healthy scratches moving in and out of the lineup, so the Golden Knights got a lot of players who were used to being mixed and matched so they were built for this.
Marlon Gaines on Facebook: We have about seven more games until we face another team with eight wins. Why don't we call up some scorers so we can at least try to squeeze a .500 record until our goalies get healthy? We are facing some bad teams. If we can't stop them let’s just outscore them.
Jesse Granger: I see what Marlon is saying because he watched the preseason and saw guys like Tyler Wong, Tomas Hyka and Teemu Pulkkinen that scored goals, and they’ve been scoring goals for the Chicago Wolves.
The problem is, when you call a guy up from the AHL you have to move someone from that roster spot in the NHL. You only have 23 spots on the active roster and the Golden Knights are already having problems fitting all of their players. It’s just not feasible to bring any of those guys up. If you were to do that you’d have to waive someone.
