The Vegas Golden Knights have seven seasons in the books, and it has been an impressive and exhilarating ride for the 2017 expansion club. In those seven seasons, Vegas has made two Stanley Cup Final appearances, four trips to the Western Conference Final and six postseason runs.
An aggressive and exhaustive approach ultimately led the franchise to hoist Lord Stanley’s prize in just its sixth season, and expectations inside the Vegas locker room remain sky-high for Year 8.
The outside world seems to be less enamored with the current state of the Golden Knights, but this is a team that doesn’t mind playing with a chip on its shoulder. In fact, the Golden Misfits embrace it.
The last time they were underestimated, the Golden Knights finished as the last team standing.
Forward Keegan Kolesar views the doubters as a positive for a determined hockey club. “I think people might write us off or not think we’re as deep as we were in the previous years, but I think we’re just as deadly,” he said.
The Golden Knights seem comfortable and confident following what they collectively believe was another strong training camp.
“I’ve watched my team, so I’d like to think we’d be ready to go,” Vegas bench boss Bruce Cassidy said. “We’ve covered a lot of things, we’ve had pockets of really good hockey. … I feel good about our group in terms of where they’re at mentally.”
Cassidy is also optimistic about the fact that Vegas enters the season with a relatively healthy lineup, with the exception of William Karlsson, who was placed on injured reserve Tuesday after suffering an undisclosed injury early in camp. Cassidy did not have an update on his status.
But a turnover-laden offseason has left the current lineup with less offense and less experience as well as more questions.
The most notable change revolves around the controversial departure of Original Misfit and Conn Smythe Trophy winner Jonathan Marchessault; the two sides were unable to agree to terms on a deal, resulting in Marchessault — fresh off a 40-goal season — signing a team-friendly five-year, $27.5 million contract with Nashville.
Vegas also will be without Original Misfit William Carrier, who inked a six year, $12 million contract with Carolina, as well as top-six center Chandler Stephenson, who joined the Kraken on a lucrative seven-year deal with an AAV of $6.25 million.
Forward Michael Amadio signed with Ottawa for three years at an AAV of $2.6 million, while Alec Martinez ($4 million AAV with Chicago) and Anthony Mantha ($3.5 million AAV with Calgary) signed one-year deals with other clubs. Logan Thompson and Paul Cotter were traded to Washington and New Jersey, respectively.
The primary offseason additions include wingers Victor Olofsson (free agency), Alexander Holtz (trade) and Tanner Pearson (PTO) as well as goaltender Ilya Samsonov (free agency).
But the Golden Knights have arguably the best blue line in the NHL, with three top-pair, puck-moving rearguards in Alex Pietrangelo, Shea Theodore and Noah Hanfin, as well as three solid pairs with Brayden McNabb, Nicolas Hague and Zach Whitecloud in the fold. A defensive-minded strategy will be a focus for the club as it seeks redemption following last year’s first-round exit courtesy of the Dallas Stars.
Jack Eichel and Tomas Hertl will need to be key contributors for Vegas, and the new-and-improved power play will need to play a critical role as well. The health of Eichel, Mark Stone and Adin Hill will be significant, but a lot will come down to whether players like Pavel Dorofeyev and Holtz are able to take big steps to help make up for Vegas’ offseason losses.
“There’s a bit of newness to our group; not a lot,” Cassidy said. “I think there’s a few wingers that are trying to start out, but other than that, there’s a lot of returning guys that should be hungry and ready to go.”
That starts tonight as the Golden Knights kick off the 2024-25 campaign with a home matchup against the Colorado Avalanche. It will be the sixth time in eight years that the Golden Knights start the season on home ice.
Vegas has won five consecutive season openers, four of which have come in the Fortress, and has a chance to join a list of just three teams (Tampa Bay: 7, San Jose: 7, Detroit: 6) that have won six straight season openers in the last 20 years. Carolina also has a chance to match that feat, while Boston failed to do so with a 6-4 loss to the reigning Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers on Tuesday.
Vegas has gotten off to stellar starts the last two seasons under Cassidy, including a 13-2-0 stretch in the Cup-clinching 2022-23 season as well as an 11-0-1 mark last year. The Golden Knights will look to continue that trend at the start of Year 8.
“It’s very difficult to chase when you get behind,” Cassidy said. “I’m not talking about one game, I’m talking about your first 10-15 games. If you’re not where you want to be in the standings, you’re grinding early in the year to play catch-up.”
Though making up that ground is not impossible, as Edmonton demonstrated last season, Cassidy said bouncing back from a less-than-desirable start is not a position in which teams want to find themselves. “You don’t want to be chasing early,” he said. “It leaves you less room for error.”
Setting that tone early will be easier said than done in what is arguably Vegas’ toughest matchup in a home opener after facing Philadelphia (5-2 L), San Jose (4-1 W), Anaheim (5-2 W), Seattle (4-3 W) and Seattle (4-1 W).
The high-powered Avalanche have three players coming off 90-point seasons, including Hart Trophy winner Nathan MacKinnon (51 goals, 89 assists and 140 points), winger Mikko Rantanen (42-62—104) and defenseman Cale Makar (21-69—90).
MacKinnon and Rantanen both finished in the top-10 in scoring (second and eighth overall, respectively) and combined for 18 game-winning goals; Makar finished second among defenseman in scoring, trailing only Quinn Hughes (92 points) while playing five fewer games.
The weak link in last year’s Avalanche squad was Alexandar Georgiev’s play in net. He finished the year with a 38-18-5 record but produced a 3.02 goals-against average and .895 save percentage. Georgiev gave up 11 goals and went 1-1-1 with a 3.64 GAA and .864 SV% in three games against the Golden Knights last season.
Colorado will be without Valeri Nichuhskin, Arturri Lehkonen and Gabriel Landeskog in tonight’s showdown, giving the visitors a very top-heavy offense.
These clubs faced each other twice in the preseason, with both road teams coming away victorious. Since then, the Golden Knights claimed Cole Schwindt on waivers (Calgary), lost Zach Aston-Reese on waivers (Columbus), claimed Raphael Lavoie (Edmonton) and then waived him (Edmonton), and sent Tanner Laczynski to the AHL Henderson Silver Knights.
Due to the injury to Karlsson, Stone will skate on the top line with Eichel to start the season; the two will line up alongside Olofsson, with Ivan Barbashev moving down to the third line to play with Nicolas Roy and Brendan Brisson, who will be the 12th forward in the lineup for tonight’s tilt.
Though Samsonov started one of the preseason matchups against Colorado, Hill is the projected starter for tonight’s contest. Hill is entering the second and final year of a deal carrying an AAV of $4.9 million. Tonight’s opener marks the start of the biggest season of his career, as the Stanley Cup backstop gets his first chance as the undisputed No. 1 in Vegas.
That being said, Vegas will employ a rotation similar to last year’s arrangement with Hill and Thompson.
Cassidy said that both Hill and Samsonov will have plenty of opportunities to “get to their game early on,” with the duo expected to share the 25-game load through the first two months of the season.
In addition to moving on from Thompson, the Golden Knights cut ties with goaltender Robin Lehner, who failed to report to training camp for a physical, which is required for players on LTIR. Given unspecified but “highly unique” circumstances, the Golden Knights, NHL and NHLPA reached a settlement that entails Vegas paying out the remainder of Lehner’s contract without being held responsible for his $5 million cap hit. Lehner spent the last two seasons on LTIR.
Vegas is eager to get going after the extended offseason.
“It’s one of 82, and it’s the start of building something for this season,” Cassidy said.
Hanifin, who will play his first full season with Vegas after being acquired at the deadline and then signing an eight-year, $58.8 million extension, is excited for his first home opener in Sin City.
“We feel ready,” he said. “We feel we had a good camp, we worked on a lot of things we needed to get better at, and I think we’re ready to rock.”
Projected lines
Golden Knights
Victor Olofsson — Jack Eichel — Mark Stone
Pavel Dorofeyev — Tomas Hertl — Alexander Holtz
Ivan Barbashev — Nicolas Roy — Brendan Brisson
Tanner Pearson — Brett Howden — Keegan Kolesar
Shea Theodore — Alex Pietrangelo
Noah Hanifin — Nicolas Hague
Brayden McNabb — Zach Whitecloud
Adin Hill
Ilya Samsonov
Avalanche
Jonathan Drouin — Nathan MacKinnon — Mikko Rantanen
Nikolai Kovalenko — Casey Mittelstadt — Calum Ritchie
Miles Wood — Ross Colton — Logan O’Connor
Ivan Ivan — Parker Kelly — Joel Kiviranta
Devon Toews — Cale Makar
Samuel Girard — Josh Manson
Calvin de Haan — Sam Malinski
Alexandar Georgiev
Justus Annunen
How to watch
Game 1: Golden Knights vs. Avalanche
When: 7 p.m. PT
Where: T-Mobile Arena — Las Vegas, NV
TV/Stream: TNT, Max
Radio: Fox Sports 98.9 FM
Statistics and data courtesy of PuckPedia, NHL.com and HockeyReference.