Welcome to the first Knights On Ice mailbag.
Last week, we asked you — our lovely community — to tweet us or Facebook(?) us with questions relating to the Golden Knights. Some of you came up with some really insightful questions that provided a lot of thought.
Some of you … let’s just say I love you all.
If you didn’t get a question picked this week, don’t fret. There’s always next time, and if you didn’t even know this was a concept, then you really should follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook.
We hope to do these once a week, maybe every other week depending on where we are in the season, but we love the thought of answering your questions, no matter how random.
Let’s dive in.
@ClayMoffatt: Who do you suppose the captain and two alternates will be?
If goalies were allowed to be, then J-F Berube would have been the obvious choice when the expansion draft ended.
This is a tough call. The captain has to be a really good locker room guy, while being a reliable presence on the ice. The same can go for the alternates, but the Golden Knights’ current position allows them to give these distinctions to anyone they see fit.
I’ll go with James Neal as the captain since he was an alternate on Nashville for the last three seasons. He’s a player that can be a solid foundation piece for the young Vegas squad. As for the alternates, would it be wrong to give one spot to Deryk Engelland? Vegas native, new team, makes sense, right?
And we’ll go David Perron as the other alternate. That’s not a bad choice.
@heimjazz: I know camp isn’t even close yet, but who do you project to end up on the opening day roster?
Great question, and I’m sure we’ll be discussing this many times between now and Oct. 6 in Dallas.
We’ll start with the obvious, being the goaltenders — Marc-Andre Fleury and Calvin Pickard. If we’re talking opening day, Vegas is allowed 23 players on its roster between Game 1 through the trade deadline. In no particular order, here are the forwards.
- Neal
- Marchessault
- Shipachyov
- Eakin
- Karlsson
- Perron
- Leipsic
- Smith
- Tuch
- Lindberg
- Haula
- Bellemare/
And defensemen:
- Engelland
- Garrison
- McNabb
- Miller
- Reinhart
- Schmidt
- Theodore
- Merrill
- Sbisa/
This will dwindle down to 20 at some point, and it’ll be easier for Vegas to trim the blue line when the time comes. If Shea Theodore isn’t a starter out of the gates, he should be at some point, which will knock down a veteran like Jason Garrison. Alex Tuch was very impressive during development camp and will make a strong case to be on the ice come opening night. Again, this can all change in a few weeks. Do not hold my word to it.
Timothy Pietrzak: Find out about how to see games on television, (seems to have made many people angry). I need to make plans to watch first game since I picked a different game pack.
Ah, yes. The dreaded TV dealings.
For those not living in Las Vegas, let’s bring you up to speed. The Golden Knights’ TV deal is with ROOT Sports (now AT&T SportsNet), a channel that is primarily supplied to DirecTV customers. Cox Communications, the leading cable provider in Las Vegas, does not have AT&T SportsNet. If half of Southern Nevada can’t get Golden Knights games on their TVs, then what are we doing here?
We reported back on June 26 that talks between AT&T and TV providers to carry Golden Knights coverage are expected to happen. When that official date is, to this point, we don’t know. But all parties, including Cox, are expected to talk and get this resolved prior to the first game.
So, hang tight before deciding to switch to satellite.
@HalfAgain: Why did you dirty bastards steal Nate Schmidt from our hearts?
For the record, we did not have any say in who George McPhee drafted from his former team, but we do love Nate Schmidt and we thank the Capitals for leaving him unprotected.
@operahockeyguy: Will you have showgirls on the ice?
I can assure you we will not have them on the ice. The Golden Knights, however, are an organization with plenty of money and can do such tomfoolery. If they want showgirls, let them have showgirls.
@JapersRink: Postgame, will the players take golden showers?
This is what happens when you let hockey blogs tweet.