Vegas Golden Knights Flip Another Defenseman After Draft

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 5:35 p.m. ET

Fansided, Matt Duscharme/FanSided via Puck Prose

The Vegas Golden Knights Made Another Trade, This Time Sending Defenseman David Schlemko to Montreal for a Draft Pick.

On Thursday, the Vegas Golden Knights stayed active when the flipped another selection to the Montreal Canadiens for a fifth-round pick in 2019. When the Canadiens moved Nathan Beaulieu to Buffalo it was evident they needed a replacement. Now David Schlemko isn't going to put up the offensive numbers Beaulieu did, but he's still going to be a solid player.

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Schlemko started his pro career way back in 2007-08 for the San Antonio Rampage of the AHL, however, he would appear for their NHL team, the Phoenix Coyotes the next season playing in just three games scoring one point. The former undrafted player has appeared in 360 NHL games scoring 87 points with 114 penalty minutes and career plus seven rating split between Phoenix/Arizona, Dallas, Calgary, New Jersey, and San Jose.

Plus he's fairly cheep with a cap hit of only $2.1 million. What made Schlemko such a stud defenseman was his contributions in the WHL when he played for Medicine Hat. In 198 career WHL games, David put up 131 points and a career plus 44 rating. How he went undrafted is still a mystery, but he also did fairly well in the AHL before becoming an NHL regular. In 129 career AHL games, Dave scored 64 points with 56 penalty minutes but unfortunately had a career minus 21 rating.

He's going to see at least bottom four minutes which isn't bad for a defenseman of his caliber, he can help shut down players and notch in some points here and there so a fifth-round pick two years from now isn't a bad cost for the club.

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