The Golden Knights rookies head up to San Jose for a pair of games today and tomorrow against the rookies of Utah and Colorado. Trevor Connelly is the headliner for the Golden Knights as the only 1st round pick on the roster, but players like Ben Hemmerling, Mathieu Cataford, Tuomas Uronen, and a few others give Vegas a pretty strong and experienced team.
Both games are expected to stream live on the Golden Knights website with today’s puck drop at 3 PM and tomorrow at 1 PM. Here’s what I’ll have my eyes on during the six periods of rookie hockey.
Has Trevor Connelly graduated beyond this level?
If Connelly is a serious contender to make the Golden Knights’ roster out of Training Camp, he must look like a man among boys in games like this. He says he’s added a bunch of muscle and is currently the heaviest he’s ever weighed in his life which has him feeling healthy and using his word, “stable.” We already know he’s a good skater with a great knack for playmaking especially with the puck on his stick in the offensive zone. He’s been working on adding a lot more to his 200-foot game and instilling “professional habits.” It all needs to show up as the talisman for the VGK squad in the two rookie games. He doesn’t necessarily need to score a bunch of goals or post a ton of points, he just has to look like the best player on the ice more often than not when he’s out there.
