A few days ago Tyrell Goulbourne sent out an Instagram post wearing his brand new Golden Knights warmup jersey and white gloves. We shared it on SinBin.vegas’ social media account and were blown away by the number of “who is he?” comments. So, today we shall try to make that change.
This offseason the Golden Knights experienced a lot of turnover, especially in the depth department. Out went Pierre-Edouard Bellemare (COL), Ryan Carpenter (CHI), Erik Haula (CAR), and Colin Miller (BUF) from the NHL roster, and with them went Chicago Wolves standouts Daniel Carr (NSH), T.J. Tynan (COL), Max Lagace (BOS), Stefan Matteau (Cleveland AHL), Brooks Macek (KHL), Tomas Hyka (KHL), and others.
In total, four of the Wolves top seven scorers walked out the door. However, the Golden Knights organization did reload. They signed four new players that will certainly become household names for Wolves fans, and one or two may see time in Vegas. Either way, they’ll all be here next week, so we thought it would be nice to introduce them and attempt to end the “Brett Lernout: Who’s that?” comments from popping up anymore.
Tyrell Goulbourne
Position: Forward
Age: 25
Draft: 2013, Round 3, #72 overall, Philadelphia Flyers
Last Team: Lehigh Valley Phantoms (Philadelphia AHL)
Goulbourne is cut from the Bellemare and Carrier cloth. Not the most offensively gifted player, Goulbourne makes his presence known with relentless forechecking and physicality. In his 223 AHL games, Goulbourne has tallied just 25 goals and 55 points, but racked up 313 penalty minutes.
He won the WHL Championship in 2015 with the Kelowna Rockets, which is likely why he was on Kelly McCrimmon and the Golden Knights’ radar.
He has an extensive history of fighting in the AHL. It’s definitely worth a visit to his page on HockeyFights.com.
Patrick Brown
Position: Forward
Age: 27
Draft: Undrafted
Last Team: Charlotte Checkers (Carolina AHL)
Brown is best known as the former captain of the team that beat the Chicago Wolves in the Calder Cup Final. He’s been the Checkers captain for three years and will likely be in the running to wear at least an “A” for the Wolves if he doesn’t make the Golden Knights roster. He got a call-up to the Hurricanes in the playoffs but didn’t make a major impact.
We wrote a much longer piece on Brown here, so check that out.
Brett Lernout
Position: Defenseman
Age: 23
Draft: 2014, Round 3, #73 overall, Montréal Canadiens
Last Team: Laval Rocket (Montreal AHL)
A massive defenseman, Lernout is most known for his defensive responsibility. He’s not likely to chip in much offense, but when the team has a lead or has a big penalty to kill, Lernout will be on the ice. He’s a good skater for his size and does well to stay out of the box for as physical of a player as he can be at times. He’s basically the AHL version of Brayden McNabb.
He’s played in 21 NHL games, all with the Canadiens and has one goal and a -6 rating.
Lernout is another WHL product playing with the Swift Current Broncos, who play in the same conference as McCrimmon’s Brandon Wheat Kings.
Lernout is something the Golden Knights organization does not have a lot of, defense-first defensemen with size. With Griffin Reinhart still unsigned, the Wolves defensive core is mostly constructed of puck-movers. Lernout will be a welcome contrary to guys like Whitecloud, Coghlan, Hauge, and Schuldt, and who knows, if the Golden Knights lose Deryk Engelland or Brayden McNabb for a period of time, Lernout could be the right fill-in option.
Jaycob Megna
Position: Defenseman
Age: 26
Draft: 2012, Round 7, #210 overall, Anaheim Ducks
Last Team: San Diego Gulls (Anaheim AHL)
We could basically copy/paste the blurb written about Lernout’s style of play and put it here under Megna’s. He’s a 6’6″ defense-first bruiser who isn’t expected to contribute much offensively. Formerly with the Gulls, the team the Wolves eliminated in the AHL Western Conference Finals, Megna spent quite a bit of time with the NHL club. He’s played in 43 NHL games and has scored just one goal and registered four assists.
However, he saw quite a bit of shorthanded time, averaging exactly two minutes per game last year while with the Ducks. Like Lernout, he’s a backup to McNabb and Engelland and will likely be leaned on heavily by Rocky Thompson to kill penalties in Chicago.
Mark
We need all hands on deck this year. With a little luck, we could have the team. Obviously, penalty kills are a major importance. What happened last year against San Jose can never happen again. A couple of these big defenseman look imposing, look intimidating, that’s good. We have the scorer’s, our top 3 lines are amazing, we need to keep other teams honest, keep them looking over their shoulders. We will have a huge chip on our shoulders, Reaves, Carrier, McNabb and a few other guys will keep us in games, Karlsson and they boys will produce, it’s the intangibles we need clicking. We are close, really close to having a team that can go all the way. Go Knights !!
Shotsave
What good is a developmental team when four of the top seven point scorers are allowed to flee? All that does is force the parent club to sign more mediocre free agents to fill locker stalls. One of those four – Daniel Carr – was so gifted that he earned the AHL MVP award last season – despite playing only 52 regular season games!