Burning Questions Entering The 26-27 Season For The Vegas Golden Knights

The 2025-26 season will go down as one of the weirdest years in Golden Knights history. For the first six months, in the regular season, they were barely an average team, battling through massive winning and losing swings and ultimately finishing with more losses than wins. Then, the playoffs began, and they turned into the team many believed they’d be all season, going on somewhat of a Cinderella run to the Stanley Cup Final, only to fall a few wins short.

It’s clear they are still a strong team, but the dichotomy of last year allows for a wide range of opinions on Season 10. Plus, a new coach, a couple of significant players leaving via trade, and another year on the legs of many of the veterans opens the door for even more speculation.

To me, the season will be determined based on the answers to these… burning questions.

Can the offensive-leaning blue line hold up defensively to insulate goaltending?

This question is listed first because if it is answered with a resounding no, not much else is going to matter. That seems unlikely, though, especially after the playoff run in which they held a few of the league’s best offenses down and made it look easy. Shea Theodore, Rasmus Andersson, and Noah Hanifin are all big-name defensemen who are known for their offensive contributions, but they all have plenty of ability to defend at a high level. The goalies took a lot of the wrath last season and rightfully so in many cases, but they are both clearly good enough that if the defending is good in front of them, they can not only hold up but thrive. VGK’s defending doesn’t have to be elite all season long for them to put up enough points to reach the playoffs. It will have to be for two months to win those extra two games this postseason.

Will the Golden Knights be able to maintain their excellence on special teams to offset any challenges at 5-on-5?

VGK finished the 25-26 regular season with the NHL’s 6th best power play (24.6%) and tied for the 6th best penalty kill (81.4%). It’s nearly impossible to be a bad team with Top 10 units on both special teams, not to mention they were excellent both with and against the empty-net as well. Special teams dominance erased a lot of the 5-on-5 struggles that occurred not only in the regular season but also at times in the playoffs. Obviously, the personnel on both special teams groups is superb, but there’s no denying that Bruce Cassidy had an impact on effectiveness. If there’s a major dip in either the power play or the penalty kill, there will be a serious ripple effect felt across the entire roster.

How much help can be provided internally to fill the depth roles?

Several veteran depth players were sent packing this summer, leaving a bunch of openings for younger players to step into. All four bottom-six winger roles are there for the taking, which is extremely rare heading into a VGK training camp. The question is, how many guys do the Golden Knights have that are actually capable of filling those spots? For every one that is occupied with someone already on the roster, it’s one less hole they’ll have to fill via trade later in the season. The top-six and defense corps on this team are good enough that they’re essentially guaranteed to be in contention, and when they are, the front office can’t help themselves but to add. If the bottom-six is shored up come late February, they can focus on blockbusters rather than working around the edges.

How will Ryan Craig handle the rigors of a full regular season with sizeable expectations?

Craig has been in the coaching room with three different head coaches, experiencing massive highs and also some brutal lows. He’s seen how each guy responded to each of those situations and should have a good feel for what has worked and what did not. There will be troubling stretches this season and his ability to pull the team out of them quickly will go a long way in determining how well the team does this season. Is he erratic or patient with line changes? Is he flexible in tweaking systems if the initial plans aren’t working out or will he stick to his guns? He’s going to be under the microscope and will likely get too much blame when the team is struggling and too much credit when it’s going well, but his impact on the team will be felt.