LAST SEASON
The Golden Knights came into the 2021-22 season as one of the favorites to win the Stanley Cup.
They finished the pandemic-shortened 2021 season tied for the league lead in points with the Colorado Avalanche, edged out those same Avs in the second round of the playoffs, and then lost to the Cinderella Montreal Canadiens in the semi-final.
In November, the Golden Knights added what was thought to be the missing piece to their roster, acquiring Jack Eichel from the Buffalo Sabres to finally give them their much-needed top-line center. Vegas knew Eichel wouldn’t debut there for a few months as he underwent disk-replacement surgery but the plan was to finally have a locked-and-loaded roster ready to go come playoff time.
Unfortunately for the Golden Knights, making the playoffs isn’t a guarantee in the NHL.
Vegas struggled through a combination of injuries and salary cap navigation and was never able to ice its ideal roster for more than a few games at a time. It wound up finishing the season with a 43-31-8 record, good for ninth in the Western Conference.
It was a stunning finish for a team that had pretty much experienced nothing but success since entering the league back in 2017. The question now is whether the 2021-22 season was an anomaly for the Golden Knights or if it was the beginning of the team’s fall.
KEY ADDITIONS & DEPARTURES
Additions
Phil Kessel, RW
Adin Hill, G
Michael Hutchinson, G
Byron Froese, C
Sheldon Rempal, RW/LW
Spencer Foo, RW/C
Departures
Max Pacioretty, LW (Car)
Mattias Janmark, LW/RW (Edm)
Dylan Coghlan, D (Car)
Oscar Dansk, G (Cgy)
Ben Jones, C (Cgy)
Jack Dugan, LW (NJ)
OFFENSE
The Golden Knights finished 12th in the league with 266 goals last season, far from the deep, high-octane offense that we’ve seen from them in the past.
On a roster with names like Mark Stone, Eichel, and Max Pacioretty, it was Jonathan Marchessault and Chandler Stephenson who led the way for Vegas offensively with 66 and 64 points, respectively. Their third-highest scoring forward was Evgenii Dadonov, whom the team tried desperately to dump ahead of the trade deadline in a botched attempt to send him somewhere on his no-trade list.
The issue for Vegas is that its key players were never healthy at the same time. Both Stone and Pacioretty got injured in the second game of the season and missed over a month and Eichel didn’t make his debut until February.
All told, Pacioretty scored 39 points in 37 games, Stone scored 30 points in 37 games, and Eichel scored 25 points in 34 games.
Dadonov and Pacioretty were salary cap casualties over the summer and the only replacement that was brought in to compensate was Phil Kessel, so in order for the Golden Knights’ offense to rebound, they’re going to need healthy, rebound seasons from Eichel and Stone.
DEFENSE
The Golden Knights boast a strong group of defenders, flanked by two legitimate No. 1s in Alex Pietrangelo and Shea Theodore.
Those two aces helped make the blueline an area of consistency for the Golden Knights amidst a season full of chaos in 2021-22, as Pietrangelo and Theodore suited up for 80 and 78 games, respectively. Vegas had eight different defenders play at least 150 minutes at even-strength and all of them finished in the green in terms of expected goals for percentage.
Pietrangelo and Alec Martinez form the team’s veteran pairing, while Theodore often plays alongside Brayden McNabb, a defensive pairing the Golden Knights have used since their inaugural season. The third pairing will feature a combination of Zach Whitecloud, Nic Hague, Ben Hutton, and possibly rookie Kaedan Korczak, who performed well in his first full AHL season last year.
GOALTENDING
Vegas made the controversial decision to move on from Marc-Andre Fleury last summer following a Vezina Trophy-winning season because it believed that Robin Lehner was its goaltender of the future.
Lehner wound up struggling through an injury-riddled season, as he posted a .907 save percentage over 44 games. His backup, Laurent Brossoit, also struggled with injuries and put up an .895 save percentage over 24 games.
The most successful goalie the Golden Knights had in 2021-22 was third-stringer Logan Thompson, who posted a .914 save percentage down the stretch. The Golden Knights are hoping that small sample was legitimate, because Lehner will miss all of 2022-23 and Brossoit is out with no timeline for his return.
Vegas’ insurance options are Adin Hill, whom they acquired in exchange for a fourth-round pick a few weeks ago, and Michael Hutchinson, a veteran with experience in backup roles.
COACHING
Pete DeBoer wound up taking the fall for Vegas’ disappointing result in 2021-22 as he was fired days after the regular season came to a close.
His replacement is Bruce Cassidy, another guy who had just taken the fall for his team’s ho-hum finish. The Boston Bruins went 51-26-5 and got edged out in seven games by the Carolina Hurricanes in the first round and the team decided it was time to move on and find a new voice behind the bench.
Cassidy put up a 245-108-46 record across parts of six seasons with the Bruins and won the Jack Adams Award in 2019-20. He led the Bruins to the Stanley Cup Final in 2019 and the team made the playoffs in each season he was behind the bench.
It’s difficult to say if coaching was actually the issue for the Golden Knights last season but they certainly didn’t downgrade by bringing in Cassidy.
ROOKIES
Given the fact they’ve been in win-now mode forever, the Golden Knights don’t have a deep cupboard when it comes to prospects.
Korczak is an option on the blueline if the team runs into injury trouble and Pavel Dorofeyev and Brendan Brisson are options to provide some depth scoring if the team needs it during the season.
While these aren’t game-changing prospects, the Golden Knights have quality young players who are pushing for opportunities, which is critical for a team in a difficult salary cap bind.
BURNING QUESTIONS
1. Can Jack Eichel and Mark Stone stay healthy? The Golden Knights lost some scoring when they dumped Pacioretty and Dadonov over the summer and the best bet to compensate for those subtractions would be healthy seasons from Eichel and Stone, who were limited to 37 and 34 games respectively in 2021-22.
2. Will Logan Thompson be good enough? Thompson was a bright spot for the Golden Knights down the stretch as their goaltending tandem of Robin Lehner and Laurent Brossoit weren’t able to go. If the undrafted free agent signing can be just an average NHL goalie, it would be a huge win for Vegas.
3. Which heads roll next if everything goes wrong? The Golden Knights have gone from a lovable underdog story full of misfits to a machine that constantly adds and drops big-name players like they’re playing Be A GM Mode in a video game. If things go sideways again this year it might be time to look at whether it’s time for a change in philosophy.
PREDICTION
The Golden Knights don’t have a great goaltending situation and they don’t have the salary cap room to fix it. That said, healthy seasons from Eichel and Stone coupled with their strong blueline should be enough to compensate. Vegas should be back in the playoffs come spring 2023.
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