Golden Knights’ Engelland: ‘This is where my heart is’

By Justin Emerson

Thursday, July 25, 2019 | 10 a.m.

Deryk Engelland never wanted to leave the Golden Knights.

But as July 1 ­­— the opening of NHL free agency — grew nearer, he was hearing offers from other teams and not much from Vegas. He gave the front office a call to make sure they were on the same page. He was satisfied, and got the deal done this week.

“This is home; this is where my heart is,” Engelland said. “We’ve started such a great culture here and I want to see it through to the end.”

Engelland signed a one-year, bonus-laden deal with Vegas on Tuesday. It came three weeks after free agency began, but neither side was worried about Engelland wearing a different jersey next season.

“I don’t think there’s any real urgency to it because he knows where we are,” general manager George McPhee said on July 1.

Engelland’s contract pays him a base salary of the league-minimum $700,000, with performance bonuses that can push the deal to $1.5 million. A PuckPedia report says those bonuses are based on games played, ice time and team playoff performance, and most appear attainable.

What comes next is figuring out Engelland’s role.

He was third on the team last year in regular-season ice time and was first in short-handed ice time and ice time for the seven playoff games. He played the second half of the season on the top pair with Nate Schmidt and was the team’s unofficial captain. He’s also the only right-handed shot returning after the Colin Miller trade.

But Engelland is 37 years old and will be 38 come playoff time. Last year, he had his fewest points and goals in a season in four years and was worth a team-worst -1.09 wins above replacement, according to Corsica.

Before performance bonuses, Engelland will have the lowest cap hit of any defenseman next year, including any rookies. Even if he reaches all his bonuses, he will top out at fifth among team blue liners.

So where does he play?

He started last year playing with Shea Theodore, before swapping partners for Schmidt in January. Theodore developed terrific chemistry with Brayden McNabb and saw both his possession and scoring numbers rise with McNabb.

Schmidt, meanwhile, dropped from a 50.7 Corsi percentage and 52.7 expected goals percentage player with McNabb to a 46.3 Corsi percentage and 45.1 expected goals percentage with Engelland.

Maybe that’s McNabb’s defensive prowess allowing offensive players like Schmidt and Theodore to shine, but it could be Engelland slowing them down.

Next year, the Golden Knights will run out mostly the same blue line, minus Miller and plus a rookie defenseman to be named later. Schmidt, Theodore, McNabb, Jon Merrill and Nick Holden are back, with Nicolas Hague, Jimmy Schuldt and Zach Whitecloud among those battling for the last spot.

Theodore and McNabb figure to stay together in one of the top-two pairs, with Schmidt grabbing another spot. It could be Engelland, allowing Merrill, Holden and the rookie rotating through the bottom pair.

But the Golden Knights liked what Engelland did for Theodore’s development, allowing a young offensive defenseman to grow alongside a veteran defensive-first player, and history could repeat itself. Engelland could help ease Hague or Schuldt into the lineup and allow them to play their natural left side.

That leaves Schmidt playing with either Merrill or Holden, and a potential opening night lineup of McNabb-Theodore, Merrill-Schmidt and Hague-Engelland.

The Golden Knights only committed one year to Engelland, who does not see his upcoming 11th season in the league as a victory lap. How long he plays is anyone’s guess, and ditto for how long he will be a Golden Knight.

“You talk to a lot of guys that have retired after long careers, and they wished they played longer, and they tell you play as long as you can,” Engelland said. “The body’s holding up well, so keep going and try to help the team achieve the ultimate goal of winning in any way that we can.”