The 2017 NHL draft was an historic one as the Vegas Golden Knights participated in their first ever NHL draft, as the team prepared to begin their Inaugural year in the upcoming 2017-2018 season.
The Knights entered the draft that June with 3 selections in the first round, with the first pick they owned being 6th overall. With that pick, the Knights made forward Cody Glass their first ever selection in franchise history. After missing out on Canucks superstar center Elias Pettersson who was selected with the prior selection at 5th overall, the Knights settled with Glass. Glass was coming off a huge season with the Portland Winterhawks in the WHL, with a team leading 94 points, good for 7th in the league. Glass followed that season with an even better 2017-2018 campaign, eclipsing the 100 point mark scoring 102 points in 64 games. The Golden Knights thought they had a potential elite center to build their team around for years to come.
After turning pro in the 2018-2019 season with a cup of tea with the Chicago Wolves in the AHL, Glass produced a solid 5 points in only 6 games. Glass would make his NHL debut for the Knights in their 2019-2020 season opener against the San Jose Sharks, scoring his 1st NHL career goal in his first game. While Glass had a decent start to the season scoring 6 points in his first 9 games, the then 20-year old started to struggle. Glass only recorded 3 points over his next 14 games. Glass finished his rookie season with 12 points in 39 games.
Glass went on to play in only 27 games in the 20-21 Covid shortened season with only scoring 4 goals. That would end up being Glass’s last season in Vegas. The Knights traded Glass to the Nashville Predators in July of 2021 in exchange for the former 2nd overall pick in the 2017 NHL draft, Nolan Patrick.
Related: Knights’ Brendan Brisson Poised For Increased Role This Season
The change in scenery with a fresh start in Nashville was going to hopefully propel Glass to a break out season. Unfortunately for the Predators and Glass, that didn’t occur. Glass only appeared in 8 games for the Predators, registering just 1 assist. Not all hope was lost though, Glass did have an impressive season for the Preds AHL affiliate the Milwaukee Admirals, leading the team in scoring with 62 points in 66 games.
With the strong season in the AHL the year prior, there was renewed hope that Glass could translate that to the NHL level. That did appear to happen with Glass having a career year for the Predators during the 22-23 season. Glass scored 14 goals and 21 assists, totaling 35 points. While the numbers weren’t eye popping, it gave hope that Glass could be on his way to becoming the player everyone thought he could be when he was drafted at 6th overall. However, Glass ended up only playing in 41 games for the Predators last season, scoring just 13 points.
After Predators GM Barry Trotz made a big spalsh on July 1st signing UFA’s Jonathan Marchessault and Steven Stamkos it created a bit of a numbers game on the roster as well as a cap crunch. With now having Marchessault and Stamkos in tow and young RFA’s in Juuso Parssinen and Philip Tomasino unsigned, the Predators decided to move on from Glass. The Predators announced on Tuesday they had traded Cody Glass along with a 3rd round pick 2025 and 6th round pick in 2026 to the Pittsburgh Penguins in exchange for Jordan Frasca.
Glass now gets another fresh start, this time in Pittsburgh. Glass will get an opportunity to show he is a legitimate NHL player on the same roster as future hall of famer in Sindey Crosby.
