LAS VEGAS \u2014 The Vegas Golden Knights have always been in win-now mode and the trade for veteran defenseman Rasmus Andersson Sunday from the Calgary Flames was yet another example of the team\u2019s willingness to do whatever it takes to put a team on the ice that can compete in the present for the Stanley Cup.<\/p>\n
The Knights probably could\u2019ve used Andersson Monday against the struggling Philadelphia Flyers. But they\u2019ll have to wait until later this week.<\/p>\n
Travis Konecny\u2019s two breakaway goals were enough to snap the Flyers\u2019 six-game winless streak and Vegas\u2019 seven-game winning streak as Philadelphia managed to hang on for a 2-1 win at T-Mobile Arena.<\/p>\n
The Knights had seven power play opportunities but managed to score just once. And that\u2019s not good enough, especially when you\u2019re facing a struggling team like the Flyers.<\/p>\n
\u201cEarly on we were casual,\u201d said Knights coach Bruce Cassidy of his team\u2019s lack of execution overall when it had the man advantage. \u201cWe didn\u2019t get enough (pucks) to the blue paint.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t execute well enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
The acquisition of Andersson, who was Noah Hannifin\u2019s teammate in Calgary, dominated the talk Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got a high-end defenseman,\u201d general manager Kelly McCrimmon said of Andersson, who is 29 and will represent Sweden in next month\u2019s Olympics in Italy. \u201cHe\u2019s aggressive in the offensive zone. He\u2019s going to add a lot to our hockey club when it comes to moving the puck and making plays.\u201d<\/p>\n
To obtain Andersson, the Knights had to move defenseman Zach Whitecloud along with prospect Abram Wiebe, a first-round pick in 2027 and a conditional second round pick in 2028 to Calgary. The Flames are retaining 50% of Andersson\u2019s $4.55 million salary. He is an unrestricted free agent at the end of the 2025-26 season and McCrimmon said the Knights will look to sign Andersson to an extension between now and July 1 when he could hit the open market.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s really excited to be with our team,\u201d McCrimmon said of Andersson, who will wear No. 4 with the Knights.<\/p>\n
Hanifin said Andersson will be a welcome addition.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of excitement,\u201d said Hanifin, who talked to Andersson for 20 minutes Sunday following the trades. \u201cI played with him for five years and he\u2019s just a great teammate, a great guy. I think he\u2019s going to fit in really well here. He\u2019s a great hockey player and he moves the puck really well. I can\u2019t wait to see him.\u201d<\/p>\n
The timing of acquiring Andersson was important given the update from McCrimmon that McNabb, along with William Karlsson, Brandon Saad, Brett Howden, Carter Hart and Colton Sissons would not be available until following the Olympic break at the earliest, which means late February. But he also said the team was interested in Andersson going back to last summer so McNabb\u2019s injury, which has kept him out of the lineup since his injury against Nashville on New Year\u2019s Eve, was not a catalyst in the pursuit of Andersson.<\/p>\n
Andersson didn\u2019t play Monday against the Flyers and it could be a few days before he makes his Golden Knights debut. As a Sweden citizen working in Canada and moving to the U.S., there\u2019s a lot of paperwork involved and it could get complicated. Fortunately for Andersson, the Knights have a stellar individual when it comes to dealing with the State Department in such matters in Katy Boettinger, the Director of Hockey Administration. If she can expedite things for him, she will.<\/p>\n
The Knights are headed to Boston Thursday to begin a four-game road trip. Following the matchup with the Bruins, it\u2019s off to Toronto for the Mitch Marner homecoming Friday against the Maple Leafs. Then it\u2019s on to Ottawa Sunday with the trip wrapping up in Montreal next Tuesday. The hope is to have Andersson available during the Canadian leg of the trip.<\/p>\n
Jaycob Megna was in the lineup Monday against the Flyers, taking Whitecloud\u2019s roster spot.<\/p>\n
As has been the case most nights lately, Vegas fell behind, trailing Philadelphia 1-0 with Adin Hill in goal. The Knights pulled even late in the second on Tomas Hertl\u2019s power play goal, a pretty redirect of Jack Eichel\u2019s pass after Mark Stone got the puck to Eichel. For Stone, it was the 12th game in his last 14 where he has registered at least a point. He now has 48 points in 32 games this season.<\/p>\n
But Konecny delivered on a breakaway again, this time shorthanded, beating Hill for what would be the game-winner.<\/p>\n
The Knights caught a huge break late when Owen Tippett was called for delay of game with 1:33 to go. But despite pulling Hill for a 6-on-4 advantage, they were unable to get the equalizer and two streaks would come to an end.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re an NHL team that had lost five in a row and I\u2019m sure it was pointed out to them,\u201d Cassidy said of the Flyers. \u201cWe were there a few weeks ago. We know the feeling. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe mismanaged a couple of pucks that led to breakaways and they both went in. So if you\u2019re not scoring, you need to make a save on one of them. But we had opportunities to make up for both of them. We got one, but our top guys had an off-night.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was going to start our second unit on the one we scored so maybe the coach was out of sync tonight. So I\u2019ll second-guess myself for not starting the second unit and give them a chance to give us some life. At the end of the day, we didn\u2019t execute well enough on the power play.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS \u2014 The Vegas Golden Knights have always been in win-now mode and the trade for veteran…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":417370,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5129],"tags":[1042,762,149,5317,5,1596,5496,1040,40,4,2833,3327,1261,4972,74,39,5316],"class_list":["post-417369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-vegas-golden-knights","tag-adin-hill","tag-bruce-cassidy","tag-golden-knights","tag-goldenknights","tag-hockey","tag-kelly-mccrimmon","tag-live-coverage","tag-mark-stone","tag-news","tag-nhl","tag-noah-hanifin","tag-rasmus-andersson","tag-tomas-hertl","tag-tst-las-vegas","tag-vegas","tag-vegas-golden-knights","tag-vegasgoldenknights"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115926010672423271","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/417370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}