(Photo Credit: SinBin.vegas Photographer Brandon Andreasen)
Over the years, the Golden Knights have seen a number of shifts in identity in terms of play style. The inaugural team was all about speed, forechecking, and tenacity. The Cup team was a combination of stingy defense and balanced offensive puck possession. Last year’s team was a bit of both, but had an odd ingredient included: lack of physicality.
Despite being one of the physically largest teams in the NHL last season, the Golden Knights landed just short of 18 hits per game, by far the least they’ve had in any season in franchise history.
This summer, they’ve taken a step to bolster that number, at least a bit, in adding a player who led the league in hits in 2023-24, Jeremy Lauzon. The bruising 6’3” 225-pound 28-year-old landed an insane 383 hits in 79 games during his last full season, an average of 4.8 per game. The departing players, Nic Roy, Nic Hague, and Alex Pietrangelo combined for a total of 195 hits and played 68, 71, and 71 games respectively, or about 2.7 combined per game.
Without question, assuming Lauzon does indeed win the job in VGK’s starting lineup, the hit numbers will increase this season.
Where there is a question, though, does it matter?