Pavel Malyugin 5. Nicolas Roy, Vegas Golden Knights
Position: C/RW
2021-22 Statline: 40-8-13-21
Contract: RFA in 2022, $750k AAV
Age: 24
Get Nicolas Roy out of Vegas immediately and put him on a first line. I can promise you if someone brings him onto their team and puts him onto their first line to play with elite players, Roy will be the second coming of Carter Verhaeghe. He has all the skills and the tools to become the next version of Verhaeghe.
For context, Carter Verhaeghe was a bottom-six player in Tampa Bay who never put up crazy points, but once he came to the Florida Panthers, he was near a point per game average.
Nicolas Roy has only 21 points in 40 games this season, but the shenanigans he pulls on the ice really make your jaw drop to the floor. He can deke, he’s got a rocket of a shot, and his strength really compliments his game. It also assists him in scoring goals like this:
GOODNESS, NICOLAS ROY (@NicRoy55). 😧 pic.twitter.com/geshDRH2Jf
— NHL (@NHL) December 19, 2021
And goals like this:
Hockey world, meet Nicolas Roy's hands 🤩 pic.twitter.com/XrjjVhfaCe
— Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) December 22, 2021
Nicolas Roy is a canonical player. He’s going to tear the league to shreds if he plays with the right players. He’s due for a breakout season, and it’s only a matter of time before the league starts to fear his naturally gifted skill.
His defensive game does need a few fix-ups, but his offensive skill is too good to go unnoticed. The points will simply come naturally.
So if he’s so good, why will Vegas even dare to give him up? The Golden Knights are going into this free agency with a massive cap crunch. They won’t have enough money to afford everyone.
This makes a few players expandable. What if a team were to take some work off their hands and bring in an upcoming RFA in Nicolas Roy?
Bringing Roy in would let the Golden Knights have one less contract to worry about, and it would give the Kings a possible point per game player.
Offer-sheeting Roy in free agency wouldn’t be a bad idea either because that way, you’ll be able to offer him a contract that Vegas won’t have enough money to afford.
Nicolas Roy is due for a heavy breakout season, and that team will hit the gold mine wherever he ends up. I love Nicolas Roy, and I firmly believe that the Kings should make a push for him. He’s about to explode in production. Find a way to get Nicolas Roy onto the LA Kings.
You can always trade for big-name players who always put up points and have had elite track records, but the idea of finding replacements for cheap is an even better idea. The Kings can take a few risks in this trade deadline and free agency, and these players are guys you may want to take a gamble on.
Building a team takes a lot of effort, and finding cheap players who help out production isn’t easy. But these are players whose respective teams may not know what they have, which could make them expendable.
When they are expendable, they’re affordable. The LA Kings have countless assets to spend, and taking a risk with at least one of these players won’t hurt them in any way.