Steve Marcus / Associated Press
An image of the Sphere is displayed during the first round of the NHL hockey draft Friday, June 28, 2024, in Las Vegas.
Saturday, June 29, 2024 | 3:30 p.m.
It was a busy weekend for the Vegas Golden Knights at the 2024 NHL Draft at Sphere as it drafted four players and acquired two through trade.
On the other side of its two trades, Vegas sent goalie Logan Thompson to the Washington Capitals and center Paul Cotter to the New Jersey Devils.
Friday, Vegas selected Tri-City Storm (USHL) forward Trevor Connelly with its lone first-round pick at 19th overall.
From Tustin, Calif., at 6-foot-1 and 156 pounds, he recorded 31 goals and 47 assists for 78 points over 52 games this past season.
Connelly competed on the United States National team at the 2024 IIHF World U-18 Championships. He recorded four goals and five assists for nine points over seven games and helped Team USA to a silver medal.
Despite off-ice controversy, Golden Knights management believes Connelly has high potential.
“I’m really confident we’ll do everything we can to help this player (Connelly) to be a great player and a great person,” Vegas Golden Knights General Manager Kelly McCrimmon said on Friday. “Does that mean that’s going to unfold that way? We don’t know, but we sure feel that he is going to help himself.
“We’ve all learned lessons along the way. If we weren’t comfortable that there’s a good person there, we wouldn’t have made the selection.”
Saturday, the Golden Knights traded away Thompson to the Washington Capitals and acquired a third-round pick. Vegas selected Belarusian goalie Pavel Moysevich with the 75th pick overall.
Moysevich, a 6-foot-5-inch, 176-pound goalie played for SKA St. Petersburg in the Kotinental Hockey League (KHL) this past season. He had a .942 save percentage over 13 games, posting a 3-2-2 record. He had a 1.25 goals-against average.
Vegas Golden Knights Assistant Director of Player Personnel Bob Lowes said that one of the reasons why they selected Moysevich was for his success at a young age in a highly competitive league like the KHL.
“There’s not a lot of younger goalies playing in that league,” Lowes said. “(Moysevich has) had good success. With his size and the success he’s had, it’s exciting to see.”
Vegas would quickly trade again, sending Cotter and a 2025 third-round pick to the New Jersey Devils for forward Alexander Holtz and goalie Akira Schmid.
McCrimmon said that Schmid will likely be the No. 3 goalie, playing in Henderson. The Golden Knights will likely be looking for a backup goalie in free agency.
Last season, Schmid split time between the Devils and their AHL team, the Utica Comets. In 19 games with the Devils, Schmid had a .895 save percentage, a 5-9-1 record and a goals-against average of 3.15.
“It’s quite likely that (Schmid will) be our number three goaltender and play based out of Henderson, he is waiver exempt,” McCrimmon said. “That allows us to potentially go to the market on Monday and add another goaltender that might slot in at the number two as the backup.”
Holtz played all 82 games with the Devils last season, recording 16 goals and 12 assists for 28 points. Cotter, who the Golden Knights traded to New Jersey, played 76 games last season recording seven goals and 18 assists for 25 points.
McCrimmon said that a lot of movement among the forwards is expected during free agency.
“We feel we’re going to have some turnover at the forward position on our team,” McCrimmon said. “This puts us in a position where we want to put some skill back in.”
Vegas had one pick in the sixth round. It selected left winger Trent Swick from the Kitchener Rangers (OHL) 180th overall. The 6-foot-7-inch, 214-pound, native of Thorold, Ontario recorded 25 goals and 37 assists for 62 points in 63 games this past season.
Swick’s height was one of the biggest reasons why the Golden Knights drafted him. He’s already spent three seasons with Kitchener, but Vegas believes that he has grown into his size and they want to take a gamble on him.
“I think we’ve seen other teams in the past bet on the size and their development, especially with bigger players,” Lowes said. “Everything takes a little bit longer and I think he didn’t play as much as a 17-year-old normally does.”
“We decided that was a good place (the sixth round) to take him and allow him to see what he can do.”
In the seventh round, Vegas selected center Lucas Van Vliet 197th overall from the United States National Development Team (USHL). The 6-foot-1-inch, 181-pound native of Livonia, Michigan played only 19 games this past season, recording four goals and four assists for eight points.
The Golden Knights had another pick in the seventh round at 212th overall but traded it away to the Washington Capitals for a sixth-round pick in 2025.
Vegas’ goal was to clear up salary cap space to potentially resign unrestricted free agent Jonathan Marchessault and add multiple players during the free agency period, which begins July 1.
“I think from a Vegas Golden Knights standpoint, we like the moves that we made today,” McCrimmon said.
[email protected] / 702-259-8814 / @jackgwilliams