Golden Knights' Max Pacioretty Suffers Setback

Max Pacioretty has suffered a setback for the Vegas Golden Knights, Jesse Granger of The Athletic reports.

Pacioretty suffered the setback during the morning skate Thursday. The Golden Knights have yet to announce the nature of the original injury or what the setback was, but coach Pete DeBoer did state that Pacioretty won’t be available in the near future. Whether that means a week, multiple weeks or a month is up to interpretation.

The Golden Knights have been snake bit with injuries this season. They currently have their top two wingers in Mark Stone and Pacioretty on the injured list, one of their top defenders, Shea Theodore, and top goaltender, Robin Lehner, all on injured reserve.

The Golden Knights are also right up against the cap, so activating Stone would require they move at least one player off the current roster. They tried to alleviate this situation before the trade deadline last Monday as they moved Evgenii Dadonov and his contract to the Anaheim Ducks, but the NHL voided that trade. Dadonov has a no-trade clause, and the Ducks were on that no deal list.

If they don’t start stringing some wins together, the Golden Knights may not have to worry about making the playoffs this season. They currently sit in 9^th place in the Western Conference, one point behind the Dallas Stars for the final wild-card spot, but the Stars have four games in hand on Vegas.

The Golden Knights are +128 (-1.5) on the puck line, -196 on the money line, with an over/under of 6.5, over (-104), under (-118) versus the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday. You can find the lines and props for this game and all others at the FanDuel Sportsbook.