Report: Bettman is baffled by expansion questions

You have to admit that the start of the 2017-18 season was quite the roller-coaster for several teams, and especially for the Vegas Golden Knights. The expansion team has won eight of their 11 contests, with a strong start of three consecutive victories. 

However, the bad luck caught them up, as they lost three net minders to injuries in the span of a couple of weeks. Starter Marc-Andre Fleury suffered a concussion, backup Malcolm Subban is out with a lower-body injury, and new saviour Oscar Dansk fell to an injury this past weekend. 

Mayhem! 

Knights management won’t dip into the trade market to bolster their injury-ravaged goaltending depth, hoping to wait for their return than pursue a short-term trade solution.

“I don’t think you’ll see us do anything extreme,” assistant general manager Kelly McCrimmon said told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “It’s day by day. As much as some people might look forward to some type of significant step that serves to be the final answer to the issue that we’re having, it’s going to be rehabbing the guys we have out of our lineup and working with the two goaltenders we have in our lineup and let them mind the store. I don’t expect we’ll deviate from that.”

In the meantime however, everyone is befuddled by their back luck, and that includes NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, who didn’t know what to answer when asked about his new team.

“Is that unbelievable?” Bettman said Tuesday. “If you’re asking me if I’ve seen anything like this before, nothing comes to mind.”

The  Knights’ situation is surely unique, but it’s also pretty impressive to see how they manage to overcome the injuries to their goaltenders.

Even Bettman looks impressed… So he says.