#primer adjacent

[tapedsleeves]

(primer anon) Thank youuuu <3 <3 <3 The giant goalie hugs are SO cute 🥹 saved your sources and shall scour them on my next day off! I'd love to hear more on giant Nic hague and the other d-men (saw on cap friendly today that mcnabb and whitecloud have both been knights since season 1!) but you've already gone above and beyond helping me out and i'm sure I can find stuff in the blogs and accounts you linked if you're all worded out <3

Hi!!! sorry this took so long! It's not because it was difficult to do, but because I just had a lot going on today (i slept late and then was out / busy for most of today until now)

So, a couple of players have actually been with VGK since year one that don't get credit for it, some who were drafted by VGK (Nic Hague) and some that weren't ( Keegan Kolesar, Zach Whitecloud).

Keegan Kolesar was drafted by CBJ in 2015, but never played for them & was traded to VGK in june of 2017. He played for the Chicago Wolves (VGK, as I understand it, shared the Wolves as a dev team, since a bunch of VGK-developed guys played for them) and then played for VGK starting in 2020 (he played 1 game in 2019-2020)

Zach Whitecloud was playing for Bemidji State University in 2017-2018 when VGK signed him (he played 1 game for VGK in 2017-2018)

Hague, Kolesar & Whitecloud, despite being with the organization since practically its inception aren't considered "Golden Misfits" like Karlsson, Carrier, Smith, Marchessault, Theodore, & McNabb were (during the cup playoffs last year, Smith was traded over the summer of 2023 to the Penguins) Because they weren't part of the run to the cup final that year in 2018.

Now, that's enough just flat backstory, I think. Let's talk about defensemen. I love ALL of our defensemen.

McNabb is SO quiet? but I love him so much. When people celebrate in OT, most of the guys will go celebrate with the person who scored, but Nabber almost always goes to celebrate with the goalie first. nabber MY BRO. His notes in this video are SO cute. Hip check? Pass to Shea. Nope. SHOTS. I know this isn't much about hockey, but I just think it's really cute that Nabber had these written down. He does SO MANY reverse hipchecks on guys it's lovely to see. And Shea is his going steady d-partner, unless there's a shakeup in the d-core, then they give the baby d-man to Nabber. He's basically a capybara. Even Panda thinks so:

It's Very cute.

During warm ups, they have the lil pyramid of pucks and will carrier knocks them down when he goes out. all except for one, which he stands up on it's side. And then when Brayden comes out next to last (goalies come out last) he knocks it down. It's SUCH a cute lil ritual.

Nic Hague is so tall! His voice is so deep! He seems so Polite! Every guy tries to fight him and for the most part he refuses to engage it is SO funny. He did get kicked out of a game last year in the Dallas Series for giving a sarcastic thumbs up at a dude. He is sooo funny

and hot

he wears??? glasses??

Despite the fact that his face looks like he's never had a thought in his WHOLE LIFE when hes geared up:

He won the OHL Scholastic Player of the year in 2015-2016, the year after Connor McDavid had it on lockdown for 2 years straight.

IDK if anyone has mentioned it to you, but VGK has an emoji line up - everyone has a say in their emoji to an extent, and Haguer's is a giraffe. Well, he's got a giraffe floatie.

he took the stanley cup on it

Now for Zach Whitecloud:

I love him. That's what you have to understand. He's perfect and he's never done a crime in his entire life. His PIMs are a glitch.

He cried when he took a penalty in OT in 2020 and they lost the series to the stars. He cried IN THE BOX. It was his first season.

His defensive partner is Nic Hague. They were roommates in Chicago with the wolves. They were roommates in VGK for a bit (then Dylan Coghlan (now with the Canes) moved in, I think.)

They're SUCH good defensive partners, I LOVE them, but they're also excellent apart.

Zach is colorblind, so he often has very fancifully patterned suits / ties.

he's always holding 2 drinks. Most of the time it's 2 coffees, but this one is a coffee and a water.

An announcer was racist about his name on air, and he got really upset about it but was SO SO gracious about it.

He's from around Manitoba (literally like half the team is, it's bonkers, GMKM, you're obsessed) and he *really really* looked up to Mark Stone. He was really excited to get to play with him.

he decided to who to pick (out of a number of teams) in a bathroom

He's just. I love seeing his face. He's an excellent defenseman, he's a great guy and i love him so so so much.

Zach and Martini have this lil "SUH DUDE" handshake that they do when they win, because they both stand and wait for everyone to get off the ice before they leave, and then they do this cuteass handshake thing where they wiggle their fingers at each other. it's *adorable*

Also i forgot about this Martini mic'd up

And now i'm gonna talk about a random guy you haven't heard about before: Ben Hutton. He's our 7th defensemen who normally is a healthy scratch, but is the 1st call up when someone else is injured. He was the guy in the video where Marty and Petro were affectionately bitching at each other who agreed with Marty.

Everyone loves him. In 2022-2023, not a lot of d-men were hurt, so he didn't get to play a lot, but Bruce said that he had SUCH a good attitude & was SUCH a lovely guy. He stayed and practiced with the guys who were on IR and they joked that "they had to go thru him" to get back to playing hockey again (they were all forwards). Which I think is really really cute.

When Vancouver did a lip sync battle for their gala, he danced to barbie girl. ANd KILLED it

He doesn't really like chocolate "I'm not a big chocolate guy" says he. His birthday is 4/20. Ate like ka whole tub of strawberry lemonade flavored ice cream (he didn't eat lunch). He wasn't sure he was gonna stay in the league, but he trained with deryk engelland (a retired VGK d-man) and improved so much that they gave him a permanent roster spot.

Hutton is another one of those guys who skates to the goalie in OT instead of the guy who scored. It's VERY cute.

agreed, nic hague. that's also how i look at button

I always think it's fun to know which guys stick their tongues out when they're happy?

[tapedsleeves]

it hated that I tried to answer your question with a bunch of links, so a new post it is!

so I can answer some of these!

if you're looking for a prankster, that's Jonathan Marchessault.

He and Fleury were close, but also Marchy is just. A funny, joke-y guy. He once stole/hid guys sticks during practice. He makes weird noises, he is friends with everyone. He never stops talking. if anyone is chirping anyone, it's Marchy. He yapped at ryan lomberg for being short last year during the playoff run. Ryan Lomberg is 5'9" and Marchy is LISTED as 5'9" but if he is that tall i'll eat my fucking hat. He's not that tall. He's short. I also think that this video from the quest for the cup series last year is very indicative of some of the dynamics between Marchy & Jack, and several other guys! Jack comes in looking very nice in a suit, and several guys go "oh jacky!!" Known Marchessault associate Keegan Kolesar snaps his fingers at Jack, while everyone else just laughs. Marchy says that "they want to see your boxers too" and then does the meanest little laugh i love him so much. the mic'd up linked above is really good, even though it's a couple of years old - most of those guys are still here (except smitty & max) and smitty was. absolutely essential to Marchy's development in Vegas. But the part I'm referencing is "I blew it" / "you blew it." Marchy & Keegan often have this hilarious back and forth, they're so witty together, i love them.

If there's a dad of the group it's Mark stone (everyone thought he had kids before he had kids) Petro (alex pietrangelo), and Martini (alec martinez). They have the MOST dad energy.

Martini has this like, really dry kind of cutting sense of humor. This interaction between petro and martini where they talk about sitting next to each other is like. Martini is being SO cutting but with the warmest voice you've ever heard in your entire life. And Petro is saying the nicest things but you KNOW they're sarcastic. the same but coming in from exact opposite approaches.

This video with about half the guys answering the question of "who would you trust to guide you in NYC" is VERY good. Petro says Howie (brett howden) or Martini, but ultimately chooses martini. You can see a lot of things at play here, some of which I'll get to later (i'm lookin at you paul cotter), but you can see: a lot of guys trust Martinez to get them around, because he's just got that. Competent Dad Vibe. Like it might be rocky, but you're gonna get through it. Petro is less "it's gonna get rocky" but still "you're gonna get through it" vibes.

Now Mark: I have to tell you a couple of facts about Mark Stone:

he loves golf. He has no concept of what a "weird" story is. Everyone, to a man, loves him so much. Mark cannot smile on command - he just shows all his teeth. Mark is SO weird. He changes his gloves every period bc he doesn't like his hands to get wet. He tapes his stick into such an abomination (bc he loves golf, seriously, compare his stick handle to a golf club. they are the same). He meowed right before the cup picture to make everyone smile and it worked. Mark Stone is the weirdest dad you've ever met, and he's still somehow really cool. Part of the appeal is that he has No Fucking Clue how or why people love him so much. He gets so hype on the ice, but he is insanely chill off of it. He cringed when they dumped too much beer on him in the cup celebrations. He named his child scarlett. That's right. Scarlett Stone. Red Rocks. He named his kid Red Rocks. The ultimate dad joke. He tells a story about Robin Lehner at a party in his back yard for the end of the year, where Ryan Reaves said that he didn't like snakes. So Robin goes outside to try to bring one up and then Mark had 5 snakes in his pool. Witness a man realize he's telling a story he didn't realize before he was telling it is weird in real time. This is the essence of Mark. I LOVE him.

Ok ok ok so. There's KIND OF a butt to the joke guy? but he's also like. SO beloved? VGK is an incredibly inclusive and accepting group. There's not really like. a clique-ish culture at all - they were so new a couple of years ago that the culture they built is "you're here, welcome, come on in" and never looked back. Everyone who's been traded there has said so.

That being said: it's Paul fucking Cotter.

They love to make fun of him, but in a way where if anyone else made fun of him, they'd beat them up. Paul is. Special. He has a trainer dump water all down his back so he gets the zoomies. In the quest for the cup episode, since he wasn't playing in the final, he told a story before video review about his hole in one with everyone egging / cheering him on. As seen in the above video, nobody trusts paul to find his way out of a paper bag. He stole his HSK captain (brayden Pachal, traded to the flames)'s car keys. Pachal took his car in return. He put boulders in front of the doors of Jack's car so he couldn't get in them. I know both of these facts are in the primer but they're ESSENTIAL to Paul. He's a prankster. He's a doofus. He loves goalies SO MUCH. He's friends with LT, they went on a supervised date. They were in HSK around the same time, and Paul loved doing the shootout, and LT loved doing the shootout so they did extra shootout practice together.

Re: get togethers: i am pretty sure that they all do it at random. Mark will host a big party (referenced above) but since they didn't have a captain for so long, it's just. a shared responsibility. Mark loves feeding people tho. So i wouldn't be surprised if he just. does that.

Re: outings uh. I got no clue. sorry.

Re: Newbies I can answer!! For Noah Hanifin, Mark and a bunch of other guys went to pick him up from the airport, but when Jack was traded to VGK, he was met at the hotel with just the Viva Girls. Mark was met at the airport with the Viva Girls. The Viva girls are the official welcoming party, btw. Everything else is probably who's available / by committee. Hanifin & Hertl got mark bc he was on LTIR. Petro picked up Barbashev i'm pretty sure bc they knew each other from St Louis. Robin took Jack out to eat bc a) he was on LTIR and b) they knew each other from buffalo.

Wild Bill is Marchy's best friend and that's not a joke. Marchy, Karly, Shea (along with Alex Tuch, now in Buffalo and Deryk Engelland, retired) owned a restaurant together. Karly seems quiet, but he's just as funny as Marchy. He loves Star Wars & his dog's name is Obi-Wan.

he danced to abba with his mom

I feel like there's a lot of info about Jack out there, but he really did become uh. More fun in VGK? Now that he's not the guY THE GUY that buffalo expected him to be (connor mcdavid). he proposed the idea of the wig + glasses during the end of the season & post season last year. Jack is SO funny. He loves memes. Idk. I feel like Jack is probably the one Golden Knight that everyone knows the most about and I'm not gonna tread any new ground here.

Shea is just a guy and i love him so much for it. I'm not the best person to ask about it, sorry. He always looks like he's being punished / upset about something except when he's smiling. It's soo cute. When shea took the cup to his house in vancouver, he took pictures of it with his neighbor. VERY sweet guy, very cute.

Logan is VERY CUTE. here he is holding a stick pretending to interview tomas hertl

i LOVE LT. He's got really sick tattoos. He loves shootouts. he and Paul are really good friends.

Chandler Stephenson once said that they had to "just grab our nuts and work." He's very down to earth, very funny. There's a reason why he's my profile pic. I love him so much it's hard to articulate why. Low key. Reasonable. sneaky hilarious.

SO YOU WANT SHIPS ? I can do you some ships:

just a list of ships that i've personally written or considered writing

Alex Pietrangelo / Alec Martinez Paul Cotter / Logan Thompson Jonathan Marchessault / William Karlsson / Reilly Smith Chandler Stephenson / Mark Stone Jack Eichel / Shea Theodore Shea Theodore / Alec Martinez (talk to zimmboniandbitty about this one, i promise) Jack Eichel / Jonathan Marchesault Jack Eichel / Keegan Kolesar Jack Eichel / Mark Stone Logan THompson / Adin Hill Adin Hill / Logan Thompson / Paul Cotter

Literally any combo. If you propose it, i've probably thought about it at least once.