The Vegas Golden Knights saw all six of their UFAs and Logan Thompson leave the organization and added Alexander Holtz, Victor Olofsson and Ilya Samsonov which ranked them as the 31st most improved team according to Dom Luszczyszyn of The Athletic.
The Vegas Golden Knights saw all six of their UFAs and Logan Thompson leave the organization and added Alexander Holtz, Victor Olofsson and Ilya Samsonov which ranked them as the 31st most improved team according to Dom Luszczyszyn of The Athletic.
The Golden Knights watched Jonathan Marchessault, Chandler Stephenson, Alec Martinez, Michael Amadio, William Carrier and Anthony Mantha all walk for free in free agency. They replaced them with Olofsson and Holtz and are likely to bring Brendan Brisson into the NHL as a full-time player.
They traded Logan Thompson to the Washington Capitals and replaced him with Samsonov, who is looking to bounce back after a difficult season.
These moves led to Luszczyszyn giving the Golden Knights a -28 net rating. Keeping their defence core intact will help them replicate some of their success but losing 42-goal scorer, Marchessault for nothing is going to make scoring the puck a lot harder.
Luszczyszyn gave his reasons for why the Golden Knights ranked so poorly:
"It’s time for Vegas to pay the piper after all its cap shenanigans. The Golden Knights are left with a cap-compliant group that looks awfully thin at forward without many immediate internal successors.
Most of Vegas’ free agency losses were understandable; this franchise is smart enough not to give Chandler Stephenson that contract. But losing Jonathan Marchessault without so much as a backup plan feels like an incredible fumble given the perfectly reasonable deal he signed with Nashville. Maybe giving Ivan Barbashev $5 million was a bad idea — who knew?
Vegas may not be done yet and can still operate from a position of strength, its defense, to clean things up at forward. For now, it’s been a very underwhelming summer that threatens to drastically lower the Golden Knights standing in the West’s pecking order."
The only team to rank lower than the Golden Knights were the Winnipeg Jets who received a net rating of -36.
The Golden Knights still have time to salvage their offseason and even if they are unable to do anything at the moment, general manager Kelly McCrimmon is never afraid to shake things up during the season.
The progression of Holtz and Brisson will play a critical role in determining the success or failure of this offseason. If Samsonov can find his game again, the Golden Knights could be a consistent team just based on their ability to keep the puck out of their net.
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