Golden Knights Daniil Miromanov Making The Most Out Of Opportunity

A depleted Vegas Golden Knights defense has paved the way for a few opportunities in the lineup for other players. Alex Pietrangelo missed nine games due to personal reasons and both Shea Theodore and Zach Whitecloud are out with lower-body injuries. Brayden Pachal, Kaedan Korczak, and Ben Hutton have all had opportunities to fill in for these players but none have impressed more than defensemen Daniil Miromanov.

The 25-year old Miromanov is an undrafted defensemen/winger coming out of Moskova, Russia. Head coach Bruce Cassidy, and the rest of the Golden Knights for that matter, were unable to get a look at Miromanov in training camp due to an injury.

But now in the lineup he has been excellent with the Golden Knights, scoring four points in nine games. One of these games included a three-point effort against the Winnipeg Jets where he scored his first-career NHL goal.

With continuous strong play over his last eight games, Miromanov is inching closer to becoming a permanent roster player for the Golden Knights according to head coach Bruce Cassidy.

“He’s certainly a guy that can be an everyday’er let's start with that,” Cassidy said. "He’s got the offensive side of it. I think he's shown that quickly and that's why he's still in the lineup. He’s playing to his strengths. He's a big man. So the defensive side of using his body this his advantage, I think he's working on that every day," Cassidy said.

Despite not having much of a goal celebration after he scored his first NHL goal, Miromanov is a great personality. He is estatic to be in the lineup and doesn't want this opportunity to pass him by.

“It’s so nice to be in this room and playing with these guys. I’m just trying to execute and do things the right way and the results will take care of itself… It's been absolutely awesome. I’m just enjoying every single day, and every single opportunity I have. Just taking it day by day, game by game, shift by shift,” Miromanov said.

Miromanov is currently on the team's second defensive pairing with Brayden McNabb. This allows him to play to his strengths offensively whilst having a defensive-minded player in McNabb to back him up when needed. Miromanov says he is lucky to have the opportunity to play with veteran guys like McNabb. Alex Pietrangelo, and Alec Martinez so that he can learn from them in every area of the game.

“Those guys are so elite players and the best of the best. It's just an awesome opportunity to be in the room with them to see what they are doing in the room how they preparing for the practices and the games and what they are doing in the gym. Even like what they are eating. It's everything, it is important to hockey because the game is a game of details, and who is paying the most attention to those details is gonna be more successful,” Miromanov said.

He also plays on the team's second powerplay, further giving him the opportunity to create more offense.

"He certainly can add offense to your game. So you've got a power-play guy… He’s been on both of our units while he has been up here. He's done a good job with it and shoots the puck well," said coach Cassidy.

It's pretty safe to say that Miromanov has passed Hutton as the team's seventh-defensemen, and maybe even moved further up the depth chart. Theodore is eligible to return at any time for the VGK, but Whitecloud will be out month-to-month.

“I'm not really looking into like what's gonna happen in two months, three months and i’m just really focusing on getting better today and right now,” Miromanov said regarding his role on the team when defensemen come back in the lineup healthy.

Only 20 games into his NHL career the undrafted Russian is turning heads and becoming a stable D-man for the VGK. This past offseason he signed a two-year extension with the team at $762,500 AAV.

The Golden Knights have started to establish themselves as a team that is good at finding and developing defensemen with Shea Theodore, Zach Whitecloud, Nicolas Hague, Dylan Coghlan, Erik Brannstrom, Miromanov, and potentially Kaedan Korczak and Lukas Cormier.

Look for Miromanov to continue to make his case for a permanent roster spot with the VGK for as long as he can this season.