Brayden McNabb Provided One-of-a-Kind Play To Golden Knights, Earned Extention

Welcome back to Vegas Hockey Now’s season in review series where we look at every player on the Vegas Golden Knights and their 2021-22 season from Michael Amadio to Zach Whitecloud.

You can catch up on the series here: Michael Amadio, Reilly Smith, Jonas Rondbjerg, Keegan Kolesar, Robin Lehner, Alex Pietrangelo, Nolan Patrick, Shea Theodore, Jake Leschyshyn, Mark Stone, Max Pacioretty, Laurent Brossoit, Mattias Janmark, William Carrier, Jack Eichel, Nicolas Roy, Chandler Stephenson, Jonathan Marchessault, Ben Hutton, Dylan Coghlan, Nicolas Hague, Zach Whitecloud, Brett Howden, Alec Martinez, and William Karlsson.

Today’s player is Brayden McNabb, the second to last player we have in our series.

BRAYDEN McNABB

Stats: 69 GP 3-5-18 PTS
Contract: 3 years left, $2.85 million (M-NTC)
Games Missed: 13
Status: Healthy
VHN’s Grade: B+

Overall Thoughts

I have a confession to make. Before I was hired for Vegas Hockey Now I knew little about Brayden McNabb. I visualized him as a mediocre depth defenseman with not much else going for him. I’ll be the first to admit that my expectations for McNabb were low and that I was completely wrong about him.

McNabb is one of the most important members to the Vegas Golden Knights, and provides play like no other. His rugged style of play is irreplaceable on defense with his ability to throw the body, kill penalties, or just simply play overall solid defensive hockey.

He and Chandler Stephenson are perhaps the two most underrated Golden Knights and deserve much more credit for what they do in this organization. Kelly McCrimmon and the VGK have him locked down too as in __ he signed a three-year contract extension.

Highlights

Despite not being an offensive defenseman, McNabb put up solid offensive numbers with the Golden Knights in 2021-22. He scored three goals and 15 assists for 18 points which is a new career best for McNabb with the Golden Knights.

McNabb capitalizes on the opportunity and scores! @GoldenKnights take the lead with 3 unanswered goals! pic.twitter.com/GFw76uOghq

— Hockey Night Punjabi (@HkyNightPunjabi) November 14, 2021

In terms of other stats, McNabb was third on the team in both plus-minus with a +10, and penalty minutes with 42. He was first in both blocked shots with 179, and third in hits with 154.

McNabb’s thunderous hip-checks are without-a-doubt where most of his highlights come from.

Brayden McNabb Greatest Hits (this season) pic.twitter.com/YKSGtyHHRY

— Karlo (@Sumdood88) January 1, 2022

What’s Next?

It’s really hard to ask more out of Brayden McNabb, and thankfully in 2022-23, his role is expected to go back down to where it normally is as the VGK hopefully enter the season fully healthy on defense. McNabb’s three-year extension that features a modified no-trade clause keeps him safe from any NHL trade rumors as the Golden Knights try and get salary cap compliant to officially sign Reilly Smith.

McNabb solidifies a solid veteran group on defense for the Golden Knights alongside Alex Pietrangelo, Alec Martinez, and Shea Theodore. This could potentially make one of the Golden Knight’s younger defenseman such as Nicolas Hague available this offseason which has been rumored as of late.