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George McPhee Talks Everything Shipachyov + Fleury Update |
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Sheng Peng
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This morning, George McPhee held a press conference and discussed, among other things, the end of the Vadim Shipachyov saga. Shipachyov has agreed to voluntary retirement from the NHL, and in return, the Golden Knights will release him from his contract and allowed him to return to the KHL immediately.
Shipachyov's NHL rights remain with Vegas until he's 35, but his contract and roster spot are now completely off the books.
In this candid, far-ranging press conference, McPhee talks about the organization's perspective of the whole affair, the trade he had worked out involving the KHL star, and Shipachyov's possible path back to the NHL next year.
By the way, if you missed it, I did a shift-by-shift analysis of Shipachyov's short NHL stint recently:
Special thanks to Jason Pothier from SinBin.Vegas for providing McPhee audio. All reporter questions are paraphrased.
Steve Carp: Why didn't it work?
George McPhee: Sometimes, it just doesn't work. Sometimes, the player you see in Europe isn't the player you see here. That's the risk you take.
He needed to assimilate more and work on his pace of play. We were willing to work with him. We wanted him to spend -- not necessarily the first time [he was sent down], that was a roster move -- the second time around, he needed some time to play, to see if he could adjust his pace of play to the North American game. It's a smaller, quicker rink. But he wasn’t willing to do that.
There’s no shame in going to the American Hockey League. 75 percent of the players in this league have played there. He didn’t want to do it, and he didn’t want to be traded either.
So in fairness to the rest of our players, like an Alex Tuch or Theodore who put their time in...or Garrison, Bischoff, Reinhart, Hyka, Pulkinnen, all these guys who are putting in their time now...you just can't take a player who is not quite ready to play for your team and put him in the line-up. Especially when the number of players we have who were playing so well at center ice was happening.
He wanted to go home.
Steve Carp: How much do you think his struggles off the ice to adjust to life in North America, specifically Las Vegas, contributed to his struggles on the ice?
GM: I don't know the answer to that question. It's hard to quantify that.
We tried to do everything that we could to make things work for them. We had a translator work with him from the day he got here. We did our very best.
Jesse Granger: George, with the roster the way it was the first time you sent him down to the AHL...
GM: Just so you know, we didn't suspend him that time. He didn't want to play. So we said this was a roster issue, to be fair. We're not going to suspend him. We had every right to. But he had a family. We let him spend time with his family. We didn't want him stressing.
The second time around, we needed him to play. To be fair to everyone in the organization, all the other players. And he didn't want to play.
Jesse Granger: Did he need to go down there based on his play in the NHL?
GM: He needed to play. You can’t just practice and adjust to this game. Everyone here was playing better than he was at the center ice position.
Whoever is playing well plays. Irrespective of contract, how much you get paid, or your status, or where you were drafted.
He needed to play. And we were willing to have him play in Chicago and give him that time and work with him. He just didn’t want to do it. That’s okay. That’s not what he signed up for. It’s not the end of the world.
SinBin.Vegas: Do you know if Shipachyov found the AHL to be an inferior league?
GM: I don't know if that's how he felt about it. I'm not sure if he felt he was above that.
He just didn't want to do it. We tried for several days. We had all kinds of discussions with his agent. We gave him permission to seek another deal in the NHL. We found another deal in the NHL. He didn't want to play. He didn't want to stay in the NHL. He wanted to go home.
Gary Lawless: If he had agreed to report, he could have played with another NHL team?
GM: Yes.
Gary Lawless: He said no to that?
GM: Yes.
Gary Lawless: So it wasn't just the AHL, he didn't want to play in North America?
GM: That's right.
SinBin.Vegas: Do you know why he decided to practice in Chicago the second time he was sent down, then leave?
GM: He didn't want to play there. That's usually why you leave.
Gary Lawless: Do you think this affair will affect you in the future with other free agents from Russia? You have Nikita Gusev's rights, for one.
GM: I don't think that it does. I have a long-standing relationship with lots of Russian players and some pretty good ones on Ovechkin, Viktor Kozlov, Sergei Fedorov, people like that.
In fact, I got a text last week from an agent who represents a lot of Russian players, he said, "Take a look at my list."
If he wants to come back, he has to wait one year. But it has to go through us. But we wouldn't stand in his way. We'd do a sign-and-trade and let him play wherever he wants to play.
We would make it easy for them. Some other team wants to sign him or have him play here, we'd make it happen.
SinBin.Vegas: Was there any discussion of him ever playing in the minor leagues way back when you first signed him?
GM: No, we were signing him for the NHL.
Jesse Granger: To switch gears a little bit...
GM: Good. Thank you. (press laughs)
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McPhee also updated us on Marc-Andre Fleury's status. Fleury was seen on the ice at City National Arena yesterday, but he didn't practice with the team today:
Maxim Lagace is expected to start again tomorrow against the Jets with Dylan Ferguson backing up.
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