Roughly a week after his team was eliminated from playoff contention, Vegas Golden Knights general manager Kelly McCrimmon spoke with media about what went wrong this season, specifically noting the injuries his team suffered was during the 2021-22 season.
“We got to camp and we were never at full health,” McCrimmon explained. “As it happened in camp, it wasn’t alarming, as it can happen from time to time.”
“Game two of the season, we had injuries to (Max) Pacioretty and (Mark) Stone, and really just the dominoes continued to fall. You’re tired of hearing it, today I’m tired of talking about it as much as we have.”
From one perspective, you can understand where McCrimmon is coming from here, as the Golden Knights were bitten by the injury bug all season long. However, had this team stayed healthy, they would have had no possible way of icing a full lineup every night, as they would have been well over the salary cap limit. That in itself means there is plenty of blame to put on the Golden Knights GM.
McCrimmon did go on to say that he believes this team, regardless of the injuries, could have and should have made the playoffs, a sentiment shared by many fans and analysts throughout the league. He also said that talking with players in exit meetings that there is a joint feeling amongst the entire team that they will get back to being a highly competitive club for the 2022-23 season.
Last but not least, McCrimmon mentioned that head coach Pete DeBoer is still under contract, and the two are set to meet later this week. There have been plenty of question marks as to whether or not DeBoer will be behind the bench for the 2022-23 season, and given McCrimmon’s comments, we should know more on that in the near future.
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