The Vegas Golden Knights are still a force in the NHL, but they lost their top goal-scorer, among others. Here's what they're banking on to stay strong – and no, it's not LTIR.
Adin Hill, Mark Stone and William KarlssonEver since club owner Bill Foley brought the NHL to Las Vegas, the Golden Knights have been anything but conservative.
Like many of the people who enjoy Sin City, the team likes to gamble. Spearheaded by president George McPhee and GM Kelly McCrimmon, Vegas’ front office has tirelessly pursued star players through the trade market, such as Jack Eichel, Mark Stone and Tomas Hertl.
But going all-in comes at a cost — mainly, first-round picks and prospects. Six first-rounders and two first-round picks have been traded in the past eight years. The only ones who haven't been traded are Trevor Connelly, who was selected 19th overall at last month's draft, and Brendan Brisson, who was selected 29th in 2019.
Well, yet.
Vegas ultimately delivered on Foley’s lofty promise ahead of the team’s first season that the franchise would win the Cup in its first six years of existence. But they went out in the first round a year later.
Looking ahead to next season, the Golden Knights' gamble continues.
After bidding adieu to leading scorer Jonathan Marchessault, goaltender Logan Thompson and four complementary forwards — Chandler Stephenson, Michael Amadio, Paul Cotter and William Carrier — the Golden Knights’ roster looks noticeably different from the one that lost to the Dallas Stars in seven games and the one that won the Stanley Cup in 2023.
While the Golden Knights are still a playoff team on paper, they’re hoping for some bouncebacks and breakouts to continue being a top-level Cup contender.
Losing Marchessault, who scored a team-high 42 goals last year, stings in particular for one of the NHL’s most top-heavy teams last year.
The Golden Knights had 39.2 percent of their goals came from their top four scorers — the 10th-highest percentage in the NHL. Losing secondary scoring from Stephenson (16 goals), Amadio (14), Cotter (seven) and Carrier (six) adds salt to that wound, too.
Luckily, Vegas still has superstar talent in Eichel and Stone. It is fair to wonder what version of Stone we’ll see, though, given that a slew of injuries has limited him to just 55 percent of Vegas’ regular-season games over the last three years. While the Golden Knights got Noah Hanifin and Hertl while Stone was on LTIR last season, having Stone stay healthy will be an important boost for the team.
Hertl, Vegas’ most recent trade deadline blockbuster addition, is a terrific player. But although he recorded 60 points in each of the two seasons before last season, he’s not the same level of goal-scorer as Marchessault and excels more as a playmaker.
The Golden Knights are also hoping that recently acquired forward Alexander Holtz, free-agent signing Victor Olofsson and prospects Pavel Dorofeyev and Brendan Brisson can fill some of the gaping holes in their top nine.
Holtz, the seventh-overall pick at the 2020 draft, is coming off a 16-goal campaign, which will help that secondary scoring. Defensive warts in the 22-year-old's game inclined the New Jersey Devils to give up on him after one full NHL season, but he still has room for growth.
Olofsson, a three-time 20-plus goal scorer, is coming off a career-low seven-goal campaign with the Buffalo Sabres. That said, he was one of many Sabres players who took a step back in production last season, including Tage Thompson, Dylan Cozens and the bought-out Jeff Skinner. Whether the change in scenery will ultimately help Olofsson bounce back to being a 20-goal scorer remains to be seen.
Dorofeyev and Brisson have each shown flashes — the former scored 13 goals in 47 games last year, while the latter registered eight points in 15 games. Neither has shouldered consistent top-six minutes in the NHL to this point, but the Golden Knights could give Dorofeyev more opportunities in hopes he can break at least the 20-goal mark while Brisson eases into full-time duty.
Granted, there’s that age-old adage about defense winning championships. A blueline as deep as Vegas’, highlighted by Alex Pietrangelo, Shea Theodore and Hanifin, will convince you of that. It’s certainly one of the NHL’s best defense groups.
But what about the goaltending? Adin Hill has been rock solid in the past, but losing Thompson, who played more games than Hill last year, can’t be understated.
Hill’s never played more than 35 games in a season. After an excellent start to last season, where he recorded a .935 save percentage in his first 14 games, Hill was in and out of the lineup with injuries and had a 9-10-0 record, .892 save percentage and 3.30 goals-against average after returning in late January. Thompson ultimately got one more post-season start than Hill.
Ilya Samsonov was brought in to replace Thompson, but, like the wingers they’re banking on, he’s also a bit of a gamble after a 2023-24 rollercoaster campaign where he was assigned to the AHL during his lowest of lows. If his highs are more consistent, he could form a tandem that keeps both goalies from playing more than they’re accustomed to.
The real kicker for the Golden Knights, though, is that they’ve got scarce trade ammo remaining. After years of wheeling and dealing, they're left with no blue-chip prospects in the system or a first-round pick in either of the next two drafts.
For better or worse, this year's Vegas Golden Knights will probably stay largely intact from start to finish. And it remains to be seen whether or not their big summer shuffle will help them pursue their second Stanley Cup in franchise history.
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