Part 1 of this article was on Tuesday, now we’re moving on to Part 2 where we are looking at the Golden Knights forward group. Again, we’re looking for the statistic each player is most likely to surpass their career-high in.
Mark Stone
Stat: Even-Strength Assists
Career High – 31
Mark Stone is a superstar, there’s really no way around it. He’s been one for a few years too, so hitting career-highs in just about anything won’t be easy. But the one number that jumped off the page was even-strength assists. I’d expect Stone to be pushing 40 assists this year (his career-high in a season is 42), and with VGK’s power play struggles most of them should come at 5-on-5. Plus, he’s awesome at 3-on-3 which could nab him a few more.
Other options: Assists (42), Games Played (80), Shorthanded Goals (1)
Max Pacioretty
Stat: Shots
Career High – 307
Pacioretty is a high-volume shooter, especially since he’s been in Vegas. It’s not uncommon to look up and see him on the board with five, six, or seven shots in a game. In 2019-20 he amassed his career-high 307 shots in just 71 games. This year, assuming he gets to around 80 games, he could easily be pushing 350. His numbers did pull back a bit last year, which is concerning, but he’s not exactly a guy with a lot of reachable career-high options.
Other options: Faceoffs Won (51), Assists (34), Power Play Goals (10)
Chandler Stephenson
Stat: Games Played
Career High – 67
Even if he isn’t actually the #1 center on the Golden Knights, Stephenson fills the role between VGK’s two most important forwards. He should surpass 67 games with ease assuming health.
Other options: TOI (931), PIM (29), Even-Strength Assists (17), Points (35), Hits (52)
William Karlsson
Stat: Power Play Assists
Career High – 8
Hear me out. Yes, I know the power play struggled, and no I don’t think it’s going to get too much better. However, the addition of Dadonov will allow for more balanced units, which means wherever Karlsson is, he’ll likely get plenty of opportunities. Even a horrible power play scores about 40 a season and I have to believe Karlsson can be in on a quarter of those.
Other Options: Faceoff Wins (588), Assists (35)
Reilly Smith
Stat: Points
Career High – 60
It’s really slim pickings for Reilly because of how awesome he was in 2017-18. He only played 67 games that year and put up 22 goals, 38 assists, and 60 points, all career-highs. On a contract year, likely playing yet again with a pair of players he’s incredibly familiar with, and not being asked to be the top line all season should bode well for him. 60 is a lot of points, but I think he can do it.
Other options: None
Jonathan Marchessault
Stat: Goals
Career High – 30
Like Smith, it’s tough to find something he’s got a great shot at. 31 goals is a lot to ask from Marchessault, but he’s absolutely capable of it. He wasn’t quite at his best last year and still hit 18 in 55 games. Play all 82, as he did in 2017-18, and there’s at least a chance.
Other Options: Shootout Goals (5)
Mattias Janmark
Stat: Points
Career High – 34
With Alex Tuch sidelined for half the year (which is why he’s not on this list), Janmark is going to have a significant role on this team. I expect him to thrive no matter where they put him, but I actually expect him to get time up the lineup as they shuffle things around. If he can have a nice run somewhere in the top-six for a week or two, he could shatter this number.
Evgenii Dadonov
Stat: +/-
Career High – +10
It’s been a minute since Dadonov was on a good team. In fact, he’s really never been on a team anything like this one. And he absolutely wasn’t last year when he was in Ottawa. Either way, he’s a career -17 player and was -9 last year, but that number almost has to come up by default. There were only two Golden Knights who finished with a negative rating last year and pretty much everyone who had any role inside of the top-nine was at least +10.
Other options: Blocks (42), Defensive Point Shares (1.9)
Nic Roy
Stat: All of them
Roy’s career-high in games is 50. His other career-highs are goals (6), assists (9), and points (15), all of which he set last year. He should obliterate all of them with his permanent role on the team.
William Carrier
Stat: Games Played
Career High – 71
The old Will Carrier would have never been projected to play anything close to 60 games, let alone 70 or even 80, but the last few years he’s been much less reckless and much more healthy. The challenge here is staying in the stacked VGK forward lineup. He’ll be pushed by guys like Keegan Kolesar and Brett Howden and will have to be on top of his game to earn a spot in the lineup on a nightly basis.
Other options: PIM (39), Shots (99), TOI (701)
Nolan Patrick
Stat: Power Play Assists
Career High – 3
The main addition to solving VGK’s power play woes is Dadonov, but don’t sleep on Patrick being a factor in a potential turnaround. Patrick’s best skill is his offensive upside and he’s shown the ability to put up points at the NHL level. If he can get himself a role on the power play, even for just a month, he should be able to tally four assists.
Other options: Blocks (26), Games Played (73), Shots (127)
Richard Santomauro
I have the highest hopes for Nolan Patrick, a young player with tons of upside on a quality team that rightfully should be ranked in the top 5 in the NHL. The downside is that DeBoering will likely allow this young man to rot as a scratch. DeBoering isn’t too high on trusting youth. He has zero patience and all it takes is one mental error for Deboering to write you off.
Patrick is going to have to come out and play lights out and hot right away.
SB
This comment is just wrong and ignorant, he’s the one who gave Whitecloud and Hague a legitimate role on the third pair. It’s hard to have a bunch of youth when you are trying to compete for a Stanley Cup look at Tampa with guys like ABB who was a point per game with the Crunch and never sniffed the Big League, or a guy like Cal Foote who was a top 15 pick and super solid with Syracuse still hasn’t cracked a full-time spot on the roster. at some point, I can’t tell if comments like these are just trolls.
Richard Santomauro
Hague’s presence on the roster faded quite a bit the past season. Glass had some bad games and was sent packing.
The actions of this Front Office and DeBoering indicate a complete lack of trust and no patience for youth. It’s clearly indicative based on roster moves.
Whitecloud, Kolesar and Roy have done well with no set backs at all. In the case of Glass, he was injured for a while about a year ago. Then when he came back I think the expectations were too high and the patience too low with him.
On top of this, the FO wastes several million dollars on Brossoit. Lehner is supposed to be playing the majority of games. Logan Thompson would have been a bargain compared to Brossoit. Another hot young talent sidelined.
Ignorant? Trolling?
Just because I have a different opinion doesn’t give you the right to be a douche bag. Just agree to disagree and move on.
SB
Yes, I think calling a coach who has gotten his team to the western conference finals the last two years “DeBoering” is trolling. point two Hague played 16 minutes on average last night and was put in high trust situations. The Glass thing is overplayed he was given every opportunity to prove himself, he played with Stone he played with Tuch he played on the wing he played on the power play. Eventually, prospects get to a point where they do not fit the team system and Glass didn’t fit the system. You also didn’t respond to my point about Tampa who relies heavily upon veterans similar to the Knights but instead went to nitpicking free agency which has nothing to do with “trusting youth”. As for Thompson yes he was really good this year, he and Brossoit will both fight for that backup role but I would agree that was a waste of money when you could have signed someone who fills his role for cheap such as Halak or Elliot. One more thing if the front office has a “complete lack of trust and patience for youth” then why have they only traded away one first-round pick? Tampa has moved three first the last two years Flordia and Colorado also just moved their first.
Richard Santomauro
The difference? The Lightning are back-to-back Stanley Cup Champions, Vegas isn’t. And I would say that the moves they have made don’t put them in the same category competition wise.
They’ve brought in several aging veterans on long term contracts who likely won’t be able to sustain their performance for the duration in Petro and Patches. That makes this season – the season. It’s Cup time or Rebuild time. The FO certainly rolled the dice and the sand is running out of the hour glass.
Daryl
Hague was given a couple chances but didn’t perform very well. As for Whurecloud, the onky reason it looks like PDB gave him a chance when GG didn’t was simply Whitecloud was injured when those younf defenseman were called up and given a chance. I’m really surprised they kept Kolesar up considering he really didn’t look that good.
Tim
SB, all three of our 2017 first round draft picks were traded Glass, Suzuki, and Branstrom. Tampa has a nice mix Point and Vasalesky which I butchered his name are young and a nice group of veterans. You guys are higher on Kolesar then I am but I think Hague and Whitecloud are going to continue to get better. With what we have a few new faces would be refreshing hoping Krebs, Patrick, and Howden show well. I also hope Dugan and Evelens get a chance.
Daryl
As for this list, I think uts a stretch for most of them. I keep seeing this player did this last year and that player did this…. Well last year was a joke and shouldn’t be compared to anything.
I think Patrick has a good shot at beating his PP assists if given the chance.
It will be tight for Patches but I could see him breaking his shot toals, but that really isn’t a stat to brag about
Dadonov will very likely finish positive, I don’t think he comes close to +10. I get he’s been on some bad teams but even when he played alongside good players, who finished very his in +/-, he still finished near the bottom of that team
THE hockey GOD
LET ‘ S TALK ROOKIE CAMP !!!!
VEGAS (September 2, 2021) – Vegas Golden Knights General Manager Kelly McCrimmon today, September 2, the official roster and schedule for the team’s 2021 Rookie Camp presented by Martin-Harris Construction, which opens on Wednesday, September 15. The Golden Knights will travel to Arizona for the 2021 Rookie Faceoff Tournament September 17-20.
Please note that the roster and schedule is subject to change.
VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS 2021 ROOKIE CAMP ROSTER
Please note the roster is subject to change
FORWARDS: Jakub Brabenec, Daniel D’Amato, Zach Dean, Jakub Demek, Pavel Dorofeyev, Jack Dugan, Jacob Gaucher, Marcus Kallionkieli, Peyton Krebs, Jermaine Loewen, Maxim Marushev, Lynden McCallum, Kaleb Pearson, Mason Primeau
DEFENSEMEN: Layton Ahac, Daniil Chayka, Artur Cholach, Connor Corcoran, Lukas Cormier, Peter DeLiberatore, Zack Hayes, Kaedan Korczak, Marc Lajoie, Adam McCormick
GOALTENDERS: Carl Lindbom, Jiri Patera, Jesper Vikma
VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS 2021 ROOKIE CAMP SCHEDULE
Please note the schedule is subject to change
Wednesday, September 15 (City National Arena)
-Rookie camp opens
Thursday, September 16 (City National Arena)
-Team travels to Arizona
Friday, September 17 (Gila River Arena)
-Vegas Golden Knights vs. Arizona Coyotes, 7:30 p.m. PT
Sunday, September 19 (Scottsdale Ice Den)
-Vegas Golden Knights vs. San Jose Sharks, 2:00 p.m. PT (Rink One)
Monday, September 20 (Scottsdale Ice Den)
-Vegas Golden Knights vs. Los Angeles Kings, 11:00 a.m. PT (Rink Two)
THE hockey GOD
anyone know where to watch the games ?I thought I saw a link some place but I lost it. Arizona website ??
DOC (Go Knights Go)
Finally!
Tomorrow (Sat) we launch our new hockey only forum!
So, ya’ll only have a precious few days left, to level your parting shots at this senile old man!
But, they have been weak and old lately. Try and do better, eh. If good enough, I might even copy them and post on new site, for all to laugh at!
I’ll be back for my final post here, after the weekend!
OFF TO THE LAUNCH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
knights fan in minny
how much did you pay others to join
knights fan in minny
knowing that you voted for blunder joe your new site will fail