The Vegas Golden Knights were able to get an intriguing prospect when they acquired Alex Tuch from the Minnesota Wild.
Tuch is already one of the best youngsters in the organization, but that doesn’t mean he’s a shoe-in to make the roster out of training camp.
“Obviously, that’s my goal,” Tuch said of making the team, per the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “But it’s not going to be easy. There’s a lot of competition. But I’m here to compete and win a job, definitely.
“These next two weeks are going to be extremely important. There’s a lot of work to be done so I’m not worrying about opening night.”
The 21-year-old made the jump to the pro ranks last season after spending two years at Boston College. Tuch spent most of last season with the AHL’s Iowa Wild, where he had 18 goals and 37 points in 57 games. He also had no points and a minus-3 rating in six games with the Minnesota Wild.
The Wild have a deep prospect pool, which allowed them to part ways with Tuch in order to keep the Golden Knights from selecting Matt Dumba or Marco Scandella.
Tuch should have a decent chance of cracking the opening roster. Vegas currently has 13 forwards on one-way contracts, but that number will drop after they place David Clarkson and Mikhail Grabovski on long-term injured reserve.