After selecting Zach Dean with the 30th overall pick in the 1st round, the Golden Knights entered Day 2 with five picks. Here’s a quick rundown of what we know about each player selected by the Golden Knights in the 2021 NHL Draft.
**TRADE: Golden Knights acquire picks #38 and #128 from Detroit for pick #36**
2nd Round – #38th (from DET)
Selection: Daniil Chayka (D) – CSKA (Russia)
Chayka is a large defenseman who skates well for his size. He split time between the KHL (major), VHL (minor), and MHL (junior) leagues in Russia last season where he put up a total of seven points in 26 games. Chayka also played for Team Russia at the 2020 World Junior tournament.
Daniil Chayka has a lot of positives working for him. He owns a real nice skating base under his frame, he sees the game well, and his foundation of technical skills and ability is a good canvas to work off of. We really like Chayka’s short and medium breakout pass game. The timing and accuracy of these is fairly advanced. He uses his puck poise, quick feet, and his wingspan to create or accentuate passing lanes that really help to generate speed when exiting the zone. They’re smooth and quick-touch and they may be his most productive weapon from an offense generation standpoint. –2021 NHL Black Book
He has a powerful shot from the blue line but he has not had a ton of scoring success since returning to Russia in 2020. From 2017-2020, Chayka played in Canada including a pair of seasons in the OHL for the Guelph Storm. He scored 48 points in 112 games during his time in the OHL.
Chayka's billet family bought him a Vegas jersey for his birthday back in 2017 when he first got to Canada.
Pretty awesome that he gets to put it on after being drafted by VGK four years later. pic.twitter.com/sz1XhpmIYX
— SinBin.vegas (@SinBinVegas) July 24, 2021
**TRADE Golden Knights acquire pick #102 from Detroit for pick #114 and #155**
4th Round – #102 Overall (from DET)
Selection: Jakub Brabenec (C) – HC Kometa Brno (Czech)
A 200-foot player that is an excellent athlete, Brabenec comes to the Golden Knights as one of the youngest players in the Draft. He has a high compete level and great hockey sense and is a very good skater.
He’s a natural center who knows how to be a third option for his defense, but he’s also good at recognizing transitional play, while staying above the puck. Due to his hockey sense, it was easy for him to not only adapt to his linemates, but be a driving force in making his teammates better. –2021 NHL Black Book
Brabenec’s father was a professional hockey player in Europe and his grandfather was a professional basketball player.
4th Round – #128 Overall (from CAR)
Selection: Jakub Demek (C) – Edmonton Oil Kings (WHL)
A giant centerman, standing 6’4″, Demek was either unranked or lowly ranked on just about every draft board. He has played his entire career in Slovakia before being selected 47th overall in the CHL Import Draft.
He scored 33 points in 51 games at the U20 level in Slovakia.
6th Round – #190 Overall
Selection: Artur Cholach (D) – Sokol Kiev (Ukraine)
The only Ukrainian-born player in the 2021 Draft, Chcolach played this past season in the Ukraine, where he played just four regular season games. He did play nine playoff games where he scored two goals as Sokol Kiev lost in the league final.
He played in North America for the New Jersey Titans U18 team in 2019-20.
7th Round – #222 Overall
Selection: Carl Lindbom (G) – Djurgårdens IF J20 (Sweden)
The goalie for Team Sweden’s bonze medal winning U18 team, Lindbom is an athletic goalie with fast reflexes and excellent anticipation. He’s listed at 6’1″ which makes him quite small for the modern day goaltender in the NHL. He plays with an aggressive style challenging shooters far out of the goal and attemtpting to cut down angles.
He went 4-2-0 for Team Sweden while allowing 3.06 goals per game.
(Huge shout out to both the NHL Black Book and Draft Recrutes. Both guides are spectacular and are must-buys for anyone who loves the NHL Draft. I’ve bought both every year the site has been around.)
knights fan in minny
panthers got rienhart for a steal where was vegas
THE hockey GOD
too rich, vegas doesn’t want to give up no. 1s , or prospects.
Sam Reinhart RW, Florida Panthers
The Florida Panthers have acquired Sam Reinhart from the Buffalo Sabres in exchange for prospect Devon Levi and a 2022 first round pick.
The first round pick reportedly includes lottery protection, so if the pick turns out to be a top-10 selection then the Panthers will instead send Buffalo their 2023 first rounder. Reinhart scored 25 goals and 40 points in 54 contests last season. Taken with the second overall pick in 2014, he’s developed into a solid top-six forward, but not an offensive leader. Fortunately the Panthers don’t need him to drive their offense given that they already have Aleksander Barkov and Jonathan Huberdeau. Instead, Reinhart will be complimenting an already strong offensive core.
CBbuddy
Did Vegas need to draft a goalie?
Mark Taylor
Very low pick, sometimes you can pick up a sleeper for nothing !
Michael
Remember seeing Lindbom play in the junior tournament. Looked good. I can see him playing in Sweden for a year or two, then coming across to see if he can crack the NHL or AHL rosters.
trade
Alec Martinez is about to re-sign with the VGK
3years, $5m AAV
that is good news.
however, that means that R. Smith or a goalie are possibly on the way out, as the vgk are still in cap squeeze status
DOC (Go Knights Go)
Need Marty back, so good news.
Knights are going to be in cap hell all year, again, I think ….. unless they trade a goalie. Not any way around it if Foley won’t give blessing to get rid of Fleury!
trade
VGK could possibly work out a deal with a team looking to bargain with cap space. Just like they used a 3rd party to acquire Lehner and Janmark. Seattle has plenty of cap space to sell, as does Buff and NJ
THE hockey GOD
I am so disappointed in Seattle Kracken-heads. So disappointed.