Despite the postseason disappointment, the Golden Knights’ regular season can only be defined as a success by any metric. They won 50 games for the third time, posted 110 points or more for the second time, and won the Pacific Division for the fourth time in just eight seasons.
How did they do it? With a lot of players performing significantly better than expected before the season began. However, that’s not to say there weren’t some others who underperformed expectations as well.
Stock Up
Brayden McNabb
Typically, plus/minus is not a stat to hang your hat on. But, sometimes the number is so strong it tells as compelling a story as stats like goals or assists. McNabb posted the second-best rating in VGK history, finishing the year as a +42 in 82 games. He was at least a +2 in an unbelievable 22 games (more than a quarter) and at least +1 in 39 this season. He posted a minus in just 1,7 which Vegas went on to win just five.
McNabb was a calming force both at 5-on-5 and on the penalty kill all season and allowed Cassidy to move Theodore, Hanifin, and Pietrangelo around the lineup freely, knowing he always had a shutdown pair available. He averaged more than 20 minutes per game, didn’t miss a single game all season, and posted his best point shares number in his 13-year NHL career. A 34-year-old rarely pulls out the best season of his life, but McNabb did it.
Brett Howden
Not only did Howden eclipse the double-digit goal plateau for the first time in his career, he scored more than 20 for the first time ever in 24-25. Howden’s offense game popped early in the season and continued right down to the end of the year. Even more impressive, not a single one of Howden’s goals was scored on VGK’s historically excellent power play.
Also, Howden took a massive step forward in terms of responsibility and versatility. Just about every time Bruce Cassidy needed a forward to move up in the lineup it was Howden. He played as a center and a winger in both the top and bottom six at different points of the year, he was a trusted penalty killer, and he was consistently an option late in games against the empty net. His +17 rating was a long way from the -11 he posted last year with the Golden Knights and his 14:52 per game was the most he’s played since his rookie season in New York.
Pavel Dorofeyev
The big question entering the season was who would step forward to score the goals lost by Jonathan Marchessault, Chandler Stephenson, William Carrier, and Michael Amadio who left in free agency. For once, it was a VGK draft pick that filled the void. The former 3rd round pick in 2019 scored an incredible 35 goals, becoming just the third player to do it in Vegas history.
What made Dorofeyev’s rise so crucial for the Golden Knights was his impact on the power play. Vegas has struggled for years getting the power play to be a serious weapon other teams had to worry about, and with Marchessault walking out the door it left a massive hole in the shooter spot opposite Eichel. Dorofeyev filled that role to the tune of 13 power play goals. He played top-six minutes just about the entire season and found decent chemistry with Tomas Hertl, another checklist item VGK were looking to solve this season.
Stock Down
Noah Hanifin
Never in his career had Hanifin reached 50 points in a full season, and most believed there was not a better chance to do it than this year in Vegas. After his excellent cameo late last season and in the 2024 playoffs, Hanifin seemed like a sure bet to take a step forward as a Golden Knight. Instead, he fell back into the same offensive pace he’s always followed and his defensive game left Cassidy and the Golden Knights wanting more quite often.
At one point early in the season, Hanifin had been on the ice for 28 goals against in 24 games and during a six game span was out there for 12 of the 16 goals the Golden Knights allowed. He led the league for a short period in on-ice goals against massively outpacing even his defense partner, Alex Pietrangelo. Ultimately, his defensive struggles forced Cassidy to move him down the lineup and use Nic Hague in a more elevated role. This cropped back up late in the season and it never allowed Vegas to achieve the defensive balance they envisioned with what they called “the deepest defense corps in the NHL.”
Alexander Holtz
When the Golden Knights traded Paul Cotter for Alex Holtz and Akira Schmid many believed Holtz would be the next Vegas reclamation project. He had lost the trust of both coaches in New Jersey and the hope was with a fresh start under Cassidy he could find the offensive game that led him to a 16 goal season a year ago while improving defensively. Instead, he never found his footing with the Golden Knights, struggling to score goals in all of his 53 appearances and continuing to make poor decisions that haunted the coaching staff.
Holtz was expected to be an offensive contributor who would lessen some of the concerns on the wings for the Golden Knights, but instead he further amplified him. He lost his starting role to players like Tanner Pearson, Cole Schwindt and eventually Brandon Saad and Reilly Smith before being sent to the AHL for a good portion of the latter half of the season. What could have been a major win in finding a former first round pick that thrived with a change of scenery, instead Holtz went down as a bust that makes people wonder why Cotter needed to be shipped out at all.
Ilya Samsonov
Samsonov’s numbers in the Golden Knights’ goal weren’t terrible. He posted a 16-9-4 record while allowing 2.82 per game and a .891 save percentage. That’s not exactly Vezina quality goaltending, but it’s plenty good enough for a backup on a good team. Samsonov’s problem though was that he lost the trust of the head coach and goalie coach and eventually couldn’t even be used as the backup in the playoffs.
Samsonov fought through a couple of injuries, including one early in the year and another late in the season. Both of those injuries forced the Golden Knights to use Adin Hill a lot more than they envisioned. Both times, when Samsonov returned, his play suffered. The first time he allowed 16 goals in the first four games and the second time he came back for just one game and gave up four on 28 shots against Calgary. The bar was not set high for Samsonov in his arrival to Vegas, but it was at least high enough to believe he wouldn’t lose his backup job to a goalie with a 3.58 GAA and .886 save percentage in the AHL, but that’s exactly what happened.
Vic
Jack Eichel…..Stock up. 94 points and +32 playing on helicopter lines (no wings…get it).
knights fan in minny
Good one
Pistol Pete
Stone had a pretty damn good season eclipsing a point a game (67 pts/ 66 games) for the fourth time in his career (two here two w/ Ottawa). Just seems he does not facilitate Eichel scoring like an elite puck distributor like Marner could. Stone is also less of a goal scorer than Marner though by a fairly small margin. McCrimmon, his scouting staff, and Cassidy may conclude that Marner’s goal scoring is likely to increase playing with Eichel though Stone’s never really did.
Emmanuel
They should sell high on Howden. Maybe, MAYBE he has 1 good season left.
Pistol Pete
Her thinking mirrors what I have been suggesting though she does not suggest the players (Barbashev, Roy and Whitecloud) could go to Toronto in a Marner sign and trade deal. Barbashev in particular could have an NTC on Toronto though I doubt Roy and Whitecloud do. However it happens, these are the three players that make the most sense for McCrimmon to move to create cap space necessary to sign Marner and further and if necessary use deferred salary contracts to re-sign Smith, Saad and even Olofsson. Btw an advantage to sign and trade for Marner (and by consequence the VGK) is Toronto can sign him for eight years whereas if Vegas acquires him in free agency it is seven years.
https://vegashockeynow.com/2025/05/31/3-golden-knights-most-likely-to-be-traded-before-free-agency/
Emmanuel
Hagues on the block, its an open secret.
VGK fan
No such thing as deferred salary for cap purposes players contracts are annual average values against the cap.
Henderson One
Regular season accomplishments might be great but the real payoff is how they performed in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. I thought Petro was down this year and made many mistakes as a defenseman.
Pistol Pete
But he was decent in the playoffs (10 games: 2G/4A/+1). Postseason is where results count and at 35 this suggests the he’ll be play up to his contract right to the very end. Has a reliable nose for joining the rush.
Emmanuel
Petro was so awful Team Canada asked for him right off the bat.
ThG
when a woman agrees with PP regarding hockey you know they are both FUBAR
:)
Emmanuel
Thats Emmanuelle not me ……
ThG
regular season is about as useful as teats on a bull
Emmanuel
True in the expansion era.
NAM
Yeah let’s do stock up/down for the playoffs.
Up: Karlsson and Smith
Down: the whole rest of the fucking team with Hertl getting the MVP of brown town.
To be honest I didn’t think the knights would even sniff the playoffs this year with their weak depth and loss of offseason players, but they did well. Some entertaining hockey along the way, for sure. I actually had high hopes for the playoffs. However when they got here, the playoffs, never even felt like playoff hockey. Vegas looked beatable with bad depth all the way thru.
Emmanuel
How DARE you question our depth!
We roll 4 lines!
Pistol Pete
Hertl? All except the MIN series?
Just goes to show how easy it is to prejudge it all the way around regular season and playoffs.
I don’t really agree with your assessment on the playoffs. Sure MIN was more competitive than the 4-2 score suggests mainly due to their top line and EDM was just rolling. They did the same to DAL in fact without even one OT game. Against us they had to go to OT twice and arguably caught the deciding break the first one. Split first two games changes the series. EDM went 80 minutes of regulation without scoring games 4 and 5. The VGK did a better job shutting down McDavid and Draisaitl than DAL as each had just one 5v5 goal and Draisaitl one PP. There was scoring depth to the forwards group they just could not find the back of the net with enough consistency. Did you overlook the multi-goal scoring by Smith, Karlsson, Olofsson and Roy? That is not depth? Top line scoring was absent the EDM series anybody can see that except Stone twice in game one. Eichel needs more than Stone and Barbashev is part of the picture. McCrimmon is likely to address that in the next few weeks.
Pistol Pete
We struggled against the better teams second half of the season tempering my expectations for the playoffs. To be expected we ended a tough out. Hopefully better postseason 2025-26.
Vic
It’s clear after watching the final 4 in the playoffs that the VGK are a cut under the elite teams for a variety of reasons. Primary reasons….lack of energy, grit and only average goaltending. Need to make some value deals by saying goodbye to some regulars. The Oilers have players with grit shunned by many teams but who play rough and deliver points on a pace keeping up with the big guns. Florida and Edmonton are the template. How does a team copy what they do?
Emmanuel
“Need to make some value deals by saying goodbye to some regulars.”
“Fan Favorites” must be dealt/not resigned.
The roster is unbalanced.
Very deep at C & D. Top heavy at RW.
Thin at G & so thin at LW, a guy with a stat line of 11GP-3G-1A/+1 is considered as being “stock up”.
Tim
It’s interesting that 3 of our most reliable players are Misfits. McNabb, Karlsson, and Smith still playing at a high level. Hopefully they sign Smith to a 2 year team friendly contract. I’ve said for years we need more fire power and with the cap restraints we haven’t been able to add that piece. Is Mitch Marner the answer at 14 million I don’t think so. Two 7 million wings young and under contract for a while seems like a better bet. For me entertainment is a big part of watching any sport and Cassidy being a defensive minded coach I feel another snooze fest will prevail. All this horseshoe defensive teams win Stanley Cups is a joke if you can’t score in the playoffs as we’ve seen the past two years you don’t win.
ThG
stock up and down posters
Donald J Trump = way up
Top Dog = up
Arnold Rothstein = up
Nam = up
PP = flip flopping between up and down
Tim= up when off floor, down when lazy boy flips over
Rich Rich= MIA
Emmanaul -= up when stays on gender
Jack Hammer= in out house
Vic – up
henderson one = A
KFIM= doesn’t like my endorsements
so A+
Jason- never comments
Ken- he’s da man.
If your name isn’t on the list, then I either forgot about you, mentally forget about you, or isn’t worth listing.
So shoot me.
Larry
Fudge…. I didn’t make the list….sigh!
ThG
opps, forgot about Larry, Larry gets a song instead, turn up the volume:
larry
lol thank you!
TS
Rating the Posters?? REALLY? OOH, can I rate them , too?? I have ONE rating, and this faux God knows who it is: GUESS HOW I RATE HIM?? COME ON, TAKE A WILD GUESS. HINT: HE’S THE NASTY ONE WITH MULTIPLE PERSONALITIES.
TS
Note: rating your OWN multiple personas
doesn’t COUNT!! That’s voting for YOURSELF! Cheater!