s23 - Disappointed fish (®)

Vegas, NV - It didn’t take long for the Vegas Golden Knights to find a suitor for Mike Fisher.

The skillful centreman was inked to a deal by the team late in free agency this past offseason with the hope of making Vegas have one of the most dynamic trio of centres down the middle. The group would include Henrik Sedin, Mike Fisher, and Maxim Lapierrie. And they were expected to slot into the lineup in that order. 

Heck the fish even has a short stint at 1C. But the last 20 or so games he’s been relegated to the squads third line due to his lacklustre offensive and defensive contributions. He was solid offensively to start the season but that quickly dried up and his -10 is a team worst. 

This entire downhill spiral led to Vegas Golden Knights General Manager David Zammit putting the 33-year-old up on the block.

“The hope was to drum up some interest in a valuable asset but also replace him with a better suited third line centre,” he remarked moments after the trade call was completed Monday night.

The right trading partner stepped forward pretty rapidly after Fisher was listed on the VHL’s trade block for a second time in as many weeks.

“We actually only took one call on Fisher, which is unusual but I was perfectly fine with it because the offer for both sides was what we were both after,” Zammit said.

Vegas picked up a very reliable third line defensive forward in Darren Helm that has almost an identical contract as Fisher. Both have 4 years. Helm at a touch over $4 million per season and Fisher a touch under that mark. 

The additional pieces saw centreman Calle Jarnkrok headed back to Vegas, the team that drafted him just a couple seasons ago. Before dealing him to Chitown this past offseason for a first round pick.

Headed the other way is veteran centreman Mike Zigomanis, who very much like Fisher was brought in to be a solid second liner but had his job stolen by Mikael Granlund. 

“There was several offers back and forth,” he said. “Every offer seemed really close but both GMs had certain guys they didn’t want to move or wanted a bit more value on. At the end of the day we worked it out and made some compromises.”

The two teams also swapped draft picks. Vegas sent a third rounder in the upcoming draft to Chicago for a second rounder in the s25 draft.

The deal will also create a bit of cap for Vegas too, about $200k. Something they could use given they were within $100k ish of the cap.

It appears Helm will be slotted in on the third line as a winger to start. This will give Vegas time to evaluate Shawn Matthias at the 3C spot. I think they ideally have him at the 2C spot next year so this could just be an early audition for the gig but with less responsibility. Either way a third line in any order of Helm, Matthias, and Eaves had to me amongst the best in the league.
WC - 526