Golden Knights’ call-up provides offensive boost on blue line

“I did it.”

That’s what Golden Knights defenseman Daniil Miromanov said he was going to tell his parents when he talked with them after Tuesday’s win at the Winnipeg Jets. His smile was so wide it seemed to stretch across Canada Life Centre’s visiting locker room.

Miromanov, who in his still-burgeoning hockey career has played in four countries and undergone one trajectory-altering position switch, scored his first NHL goal in the first period of the 6-5 victory.

He will get to keep the puck and the memories forever. He and the Knights also hope there are more moments like that on the way.

The team called up Miromanov because it needed more firepower on its short-handed blue line. Games like Tuesday’s show he might be up to the task.

“(I’m) just trying to do my job every single game,” Miromanov said. “Fight hard, play hard in the D-zone and sometimes try to jump in the rush. Sometimes it pays off.”

Miromanov, 25, was an impressive find by the Knights’ scouting staff.

He signed an entry-level contract with the team in March 2021 after totaling 29 points in 58 games in Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League. He was a defenseman bursting with forward-type skills because, well, he was one.

Miromanov played forward two seasons in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League before Hockey Hall of Famer Igor Larionov — a member of Detroit’s Stanley Cup-winning “Russian Five” — recommended a switch.

Miromanov shifted to the blue line and never looked back.

He got his feet wet in the NHL last season by playing 11 games. The Knights called on him again this season with defenseman Alex Pietrangelo away from the team indefinitely because of an illness in his family. Miromanov became even more important when defenseman Shea Theodore was injured Friday against the Philadelphia Flyers and declared week to week.

The Knights depend on offense from their blue line. Their 73 points from defensemen are the third-most in the NHL. Theodore (22) and Pietrangelo (21) are responsible for more than half that production. Their absences left a void Miromanov can help fill.

“I like his game,” right wing Jonathan Marchessault said. “He’s just not scared to make plays out there.”

The Knights have started to lean into Miromanov’s abilities more. His skating, his shot, his puck skills.

He got a team-high 2:42 of power-play time Tuesday, 29 seconds more than the next-closest player. He made the most of it by setting up Marchessault twice for a game-tying and go-ahead goal. The two assists gave Miromanov his first three-point game.

He had one assist in his first 16 NHL appearances.

The key for the Knights will be to maximize Miromanov’s offensive gifts while helping him out on the defensive end. It’s not a surprise, given he was playing up front not too long ago, that Miromanov is still working on his game away from the puck. He’s made strides, but coach Bruce Cassidy is still sheltering him by starting two-thirds of his shifts at five-on-five in the offensive zone.

That’s tied for the second-highest rate on the team with right wing Phil Kessel.

Miromanov’s size and speed give him the tools to defend well. And he’s worked hard to improve. He still has room to grow, but for now the Knights need him to keep doing the things that make him special.

“He’s a big man, so we’ll teach him how to defend better,” Cassidy said. “But the offensive side of it, we want to keep encouraging (him) to get that out of him.”

Contact Ben Gotz at bgotz@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BenSGotz on Twitter.