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Key Golden Knights Forward Ruled out of Game 1 Against the Oilers

Originally posted on Hockey Latest | By Jack Sutherland | Last updated May 6, 2025 8:10 PM ET

As the series between the Vegas Golden Knights and Edmonton Oilers kicks off, Vegas has announced they'll be shorthanded for Game 1 on Tuesday night.

Both the Vegas Golden Knights and Edmonton Oilers have advanced in the Stanley Cup Playoffs from their respective opening round series, and now face one another for the 2nd playoff matchup in their histories.

And while the Oilers are without defenseman Mattias Ekholm, the Golden Knights will be down a key player of their own.

Coach Bruce Cassidy has confirmed that forward Pavel Dorofeyev will not be playing in Game 1 on Tuesday night but hopes to have more information about his potential status for Game 2 in the near future.

Dorofeyev, who led the Golden Knights with 35 goals, also missed his club's clinching Game 6 against the Minnesota Wild last week.

He's been absent since the Golden Knights' 3-2 OT Game 5 win over the Minnesota Wild; he departed with an undisclosed injury.

Taking Dorofeyev's place in the lineup was Victor Olofsson, who also took over his role on the power play unit.

As explained by Cassidy, the loss of Dorofeyev isn't optimal but they weren't overly relying upon him.

It's not like we're plugging in a guy that's never scored, so hopefully he picks up some of what Pav did in terms of the play. We've got lots of guys in the lineup that can do it. We'll miss him, obviously, but we weren't overly reliant on one player anyway.

The opening pair of games of the series will be played in Las Vegas before shifting to Edmonton for Games 3 and 4.

This article first appeared on Hockey Latest and was syndicated with permission.

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