After being viewed early on as a great destination for players, the Vegas Golden Knights have been heavily criticized as of late, and former Golden Knight Max Pacioretty heaped even more on them earlier this week.
Speaking on the Raw Knuckles Podcast hosted by Chris Nilan and Tim Stapleton, the 33-year-old talked about his time with the Golden Knights. While it was not all bad by any means, the now Carolina Hurricane did express that the lack of accountability placed on the team as a whole was like nothing he had experienced before, and is a big reason he believes they struggled in 2021-22.
“When I first got to Vegas, it was weird that there was, like, no accountability,” Pacioretty said. “And I’m not talking about in the team; I’m talking about like ever. You couldn’t feel pressure coming off of anyone else, from the coach to management.”
“I mentioned that at the end of the year that no one is really holding us accountable. If we had a bad year like this, the city would be half on fire in Montreal. Here in Vegas, it’s 80 degrees, and it’s sunny. We’re getting our car washed and getting our organic food, and going to play golf.”
“I was kind of like, ‘we’ve got to police this thing a little better amongst each other.’ I don’t want to say it was a country club, but you have no one from the outside holding you accountable.”
It is clear that since being traded alongside Dylan Coghlan to the Hurricanes earlier this offseason, Pacioretty isn’t afraid to say how he felt about the way things were ran within the Golden Knights organization. While some may just say this is the reality of playing in a southern, less hockey-crazed market than Montreal, the Tampa Bay Lightning recently won back-to-back Stanley Cups in a similar condition. This appears to be a management issue, and is far from the only issue this organization has had in that regard lately. If things don’t turn around for them in 2022-23, we could see some major changes coming.
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