{"id":577537,"date":"2026-05-18T00:33:33","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T00:33:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/577537\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T00:33:33","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T00:33:33","slug":"avs-forward-nicolas-roy-puts-vegas-friendships-on-hold-as-he-meets-his-old-team-in-conference-finals-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/577537\/","title":{"rendered":"Avs forward Nicolas Roy puts Vegas friendships on hold as he meets his old team in conference finals"},"content":{"rendered":"

DENVER (AP) \u2014 Nicolas Roy<\/a> still has his place in Las Vegas. He still has plenty of friends on the Golden Knights<\/a>. He still has those cherished memories, too, from helping them win a Stanley Cup title three years ago.<\/p>\n

Roy, who was traded from Vegas to Toronto<\/a> last summer as part of the Mitch Marner deal<\/a>, landed in Colorado<\/a> two months ago \u2014 through another deal \u2014 and is now facing his former team.<\/p>\n

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At stake, a spot in the Stanley Cup Final. So, yeah, those friendships developed over six seasons in Vegas are on pause.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust how it goes,\u201d Roy said as the Avalanche<\/a> get set to host Vegas in Game 1 of the Western Conference final on Wednesday. “The excitement\u2019s already pretty high.\u201d<\/p>\n

Off to Toronto<\/p>\n

Roy was caught off guard by the deal that sent him to Toronto and brought Marner to Vegas. Marner has been a big contributor for the Golden Knights in the playoffs, with a team-leading 18 points (seven goals, 11 assists) through playoff series wins over Utah and Anaheim<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a player, you expect (a trade like this) more at the deadline than right there in the middle of the summer,\u201d said Roy, who’s renting out his Vegas place to a member of the Golden Knights. \u201cBut again, you never know. It\u2019s part of the business. It can happen at any given day. I just got surprised a little by it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Roy played in 59 games for the Maple Leafs<\/a> with five goals and 15 assists, before going on the move again. The Avalanche picked him up on March 5 for draft picks.<\/p>\n

It hasn’t taken long for Roy to settle in with Colorado. He’s been a steady contributor through the opening two rounds of the playoffs, with three goals and three assists.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the other guys here made it so easy from the first day,\u201d the 29-year-old Roy said. \u201cThe coaches did a good job with me, of letting me know how to play the system. The guys talk to me a lot on the ice as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Avalanche coach Jared Bednar knew what they were getting in Roy \u2014 a skilled veteran player with plenty of poise. Bednar and the staff studied film of Roy from his Vegas days and his stint in Toronto, just to brush up on his skillset. Roy had three goals and eight assists when the Knights won the Stanley Cup in 2023.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe tried to figure out how we would deploy him, and could we get him back to playing as well or better than he did in Vegas. Because he was a highly effective player for them,\u201d Bednar said. “The one thing that I\u2019ve been impressed with is his patience with the puck. He never throws the puck away. … He’s got a lot of patience for a guy with the production that he has.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roy’s already come up big for the Avalanche, scoring his second career playoff<\/a> OT winner in Game 2 during a first-round sweep of the Los Angeles Kings<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m in a great situation right now,\u201d said Roy, a fourth-round pick by Carolina in 2015 who played in seven games over two seasons with the Hurricanes before being traded to Vegas in 2019. \u201cJust trying to keep doing my best.\u201d<\/p>\n

Helpful hints<\/p>\n

Need a scouting report on the Golden Knights? Roy’s your forward to ask.<\/p>\n

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Sure, the Vegas coach may be different \u2014 John Tortorella replaced<\/a> Bruce Cassidy \u2014 but the system is virtually the same. Roy’s still friends with everyone from captain Mark Stone<\/a> to Jack Eichel<\/a> to linemate Keegan Kolesar<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, I know their system and I know a little bit their player tendencies, as they know mine,” Roy said. \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s a big advantage. The game is just so fast, you don\u2019t want to overthink, you just want to play your game.\u201d<\/p>\n

He recalled the time his Vegas team rallied to beat the Avalanche in the second round of the 2021 playoffs. The Golden Knights trailed 2-0 in the series before winning four straight to advance.<\/p>\n

This time, he’s on the other bench.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be some really good hockey,\u201d Roy said. “It\u2019s going to be a good series.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NHL: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/stanley-cup<\/a> and https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nhl<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DENVER (AP) \u2014 Nicolas Roy still has his place in Las Vegas. He still has plenty of friends…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":577538,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5116],"tags":[2210,193,192,144,5277,149,5,1041,1117,3710,1326,145,20,1040,533,4,1337,66],"class_list":["post-577537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-colorado-avalanche","tag-anaheim","tag-avalanche","tag-colorado","tag-colorado-avalanche","tag-coloradoavalanche","tag-golden-knights","tag-hockey","tag-jack-eichel","tag-jared-bednar","tag-keegan-kolesar","tag-las-vegas","tag-los-angeles-kings","tag-maple-leafs","tag-mark-stone","tag-mitch-marner","tag-nhl","tag-nicolas-roy","tag-toronto"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116592771335064622","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577537","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=577537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/577538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}