The Vegas Golden Knights announced some training camp injuries today, listing Laurent Brossoit, Daniil Miromanov, Spencer Foo, and Jakub Demek as players who will miss training camp. Unfortunately, the list didn’t end there. Shea Weber, Robin Lehner, and Nolan Patrick have all been ruled out for the entire season.
While Weber and Lehner’s status had already been confirmed, this was only speculated about for Patrick, as he continues to deal with the issues that have plagued his career since the moment it began.
Selected second overall in the 2017 draft by the Philadelphia Flyers, Patrick has never played a full season in the NHL and already missed an entire campaign in 2019-20 when he was dealing with migraines. The 24-year-old forward is so far behind in his development to this point that it is unclear whether his career will even continue, given another season down the drain.
Signed to a two-year, $2.4M contract by the Golden Knights after they acquired him last summer, he will be a restricted free agent again in 2023. It is not at all certain that he will receive a qualifying offer, or where he will stand with the organization at that point.
A dominant junior player who used his size, strength, and skill to rack up goals and points with ease, he was supposed to be a two-way pivot in the league for years. After scoring 61 points through his first two seasons in the league, he has just 16 since the start of 2020-21.
While he is still relatively young, it’s hard to imagine Patrick ever becoming the player that many expected him to be after such a turbulent career to this point. He will be placed on long-term injured reserve, along with Weber and Lehner, opening up a little more cap flexibility for the Golden Knights.
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