The Vegas Golden Knights might win the Stanley Cup in their first year of existence. That’s largely thanks to a bunch of players the last Cup winner cast off.
The Penguins’ Stanley Cup defense is over, A bunch of their exes might win it in Vegas.
A story of how one team’s castoffs can be another team’s key contributors.
Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports
With the Penguins out of the playoffs since the Capitals beat them in the second round, a group of former Penguins — headlined by their goalie of a decade-plus — has been critical in Vegas’ historic run to the Cup Final.
Marc-Andre Fleury was the Penguins’ heart and soul. Now he’s the Knights’.
If the Golden Knights beat the Capitals, Fleury will win the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP. Even if the Knights lose, there’s a chance Fleury wins that honor.
He enters with a .947 save percentage and a 1.72 goals allowed average in the playoffs. In three potential closeout games, he’s 3-0 and has stopped 90 of the 91 shots he’s faced. He’s already tied a playoff record with four shutouts. All of this comes after the best regular season of Fleury’s career. He’s 33.
The move by Vegas GM George McPhee to land Fleury and a second-round pick from Pittsburgh turned out to be a slam dunk. (The Penguins were worried about Vegas taking someone else, maybe forward Bryan Rust, so they bribed Vegas to draft Fleury).
But it’s not just Fleury. The Knights are getting huge contributions from the ghosts of Penguins playoffs past.
Between Pittsburgh’s 2009 Stanley Cup and the run in 2016-17, the Penguins regularly iced elite teams that lost to lower seeds in the playoffs. During that time, they played a whole handful of guys who have now found homes in Vegas. Those were defenseman Deryk Engelland and two scoring wingers, James Neal and David Perron.
Neal put up some big scoring totals in Pittsburgh after coming over from the Stars in a 2011 trade. In his first full season there, he scored 40 goals. Perron, a 2013 pre-deadline pickup, has scored pretty much everywhere he’s been except Pittsburgh. Engelland was a longtime Penguins farmhand who became a serviceable defenseman for a while.
Neal scored 27 goals in his last season in Pittsburgh, 2013-14. Engelland left after the same year, when he played in 56 games as a depth defenseman. The Penguins shopped Neal in search of more of a grinding type of scoring winger, and they traded him for that player in Patric Hornqvist. Engelland left to get paid in free agency by the Flames.
Perron never played well in Pittsburgh. The Penguins traded him to the Ducks for winger Carl Hagelin, who played a role (along with Hornqvist) on two Cup teams.
In Vegas, all of these players have found new life.
The 35-year-old Engelland, playing in his hometown, scored a career-high 23 points from the blue line as he became a totally new player. The Flames exposed him to the expansion draft pool and probably didn’t think they were losing much when they did.
Anaheim let Perron hit free agency after the 2015-16 season. He spent a year with the Blues and played decently, notching 18 goals and 46 points. The Blues exposed him to the expansion draft, and the Knights watched him put up a career-best 66 points.
Neal isn’t the scorer he used to be, but after the Predators exposed him and his $5 million cap hit to the expansion draft, Vegas took him. He gave the Knights 25 goals in the regular season, which is pretty much what he’s good for nowadays — and valuable.
Vegas added one more ex-Penguin in a pre-deadline deal this year. Enforcer Ryan Reaves didn’t have a spot in the Pittsburgh lineup, despite the team trading for him last summer. Because hockey’s funny, Reaves — who had four goals in 79 games this year between Pittsburgh and Vegas — scored the winner in Game 5 of the Western Conference Final.
Reaves was a scratch for almost the entire first two rounds.
Now, as the Penguins watch, guys they cast off might win the Cup.
The Penguins weren’t necessarily wrong to drop any of these guys. Engelland became expensive, and Perron and Reaves never worked out in Pittsburgh. Neal brought back Hornqvist, a key player in those last two runs to the Cup. Hanging onto Fleury would’ve meant heavy sacrifices elsewhere, up to losing the younger Matt Murray.
(No matter who wins this series, multiple ex-Penguins will skate with the Cup. Two of the Capitals’ top six defensemen, Brooks Orpik and Matt Niskanen, signed in D.C. after their contracts expired in Pittsburgh).
These players’ paths have all led to the perfect spot in Vegas. And after two years of the Penguins winning, a bunch of guys they let go are in position to replace them on top.
See More:
