Golden Knights forward Alex Tuch underwent successful shoulder surgery and will be out for six months, general manager Kelly McCrimmon said Friday.
Tuch had the surgery in Las Vegas some time last week. Tuch’s shoulder didn’t hinder him during the playoffs, having played every game during Vegas’ postseason run, but Tuch returned to Las Vegas feeling discomfort and had the procedure done.
“The injury isn’t traced to a specific incident,” McCrimmon said. “It was an issue where his shoulder was giving him trouble through the year. When the season ended, no one anticipated it was going to be real serious or need surgery. Alex went away for a week, thought it would settle down during that period of time.”
McCrimmon confirmed Tuch has been placed on long-term injured reserve. The Golden Knights are now cap compliant heading into the season; they were nearly $40,000 over the cap after trading Ryan Reaves to the New York Rangers on Thursday in exchange for a third-round pick in next year’s draft.
The Golden Knights still need to sign restricted free agents Nolan Patrick and Dylan Coghlan. McCrimmon said work will get underway of signing those two to new deals.
This opens up a spot on Vegas’ third line, supposedly with Mattias Janmark and the newly-acquired Evgenii Dadonov. That likely comes at third-line center, where Nicolas Roy, Peyton Krebs or even Patrick could make a case come training camp.
McCrimmon reiterated no changes are expected to come to the roster, even with the opening of Tuch’s $4.75 million cap hit going to the LTIR pool.
“Where we are now, I would say we’re going to go into training camp with this roster,” McCrimmon said, “and yet any general manager in the National Hockey League will tell you anything can change with a phone call.”