As we head down the stretch run of the regular season, it’s time to keep an eye on which single-season VGK records could be broken this season. Here’s the current record holder in each category and the player who has the best shot to break the record this season.
Skaters
Goals Record: William Karlsson (17-18) – 43 Current: Pavel Dorofeyev – 35
Points Record: Jack Eichel (24-25) – 94 Current: Jack Eichel – 74
Yesterday we showed which teams each Golden Knight lights up, today we’re looking at the players that have given Vegas troubles. Here’s the leading goal and point scorer against VGK for every team and the top two in points per game.
Anze Kopitar remains the undisputed VGK killer. His 12 goals, 20 assists, and 32 points all rank #1 against the Golden Knights.
Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl are good.
Evander Kane (BUF), Kirby Dach (MTL), and Vinnie Hinostroza (CHI) all average 3.00 points per game vs. VGK for the team listed.
Mark Stone and Jack Eichel remain in the top two in all three categories for their former team.
Kyler Connor and Mark Scheifele are the only two players with a clean sweep, ranking one and two in all three categories for the Jets.
Dylan Strome is the leader in points per game for Washington (1.50) and goals for Chicago (4).
Filip Forsberg (9 goals in 12 games), Auston Matthews (8 goals in 9 games), and Mika Zibanejad (8 goals in 10 games) have all been major thorns in VGK’s side.
Logan Couture has scored three OT goals against VGK.
Jakob Pelletier, Gabriel Fortier, Hudson Fasching, Ben Street, Nikolay Kulemin, and Henrik Zetterberg all have 100% shooting percentages against Vegas. Only Zetterberg scored twice.
Anaheim Ducks Goals Adam Henrique 9 Max Comtois 6
Points Adam Henrique 15 Rickard Rakell 11
Points Per Game Trevor Zegras 1.29 Benois-Olivier Groulx/Colton White/Sonny Milano/Ben Street/Francois Beauchemin 1.00
Arizona Coyotes Goals Nick Schmaltz 7 Derek Stepan/Clayton Keller 5
Points Clayton Keller 15 Nick Schmaltz 13
Points Per Game Michael Carcone 1.00 Derek Stepan 0.83
Boston Bruins Goals David Pastrnak 6 Brad Marchand 5
The Golden Knights have now competed in the NHL for six complete seasons. With this has come 455 regular season games including at least eight against every other team in the league. I went through VGK’s history against every team to find the leading goal scorer, point scorer, and the players with the most points per game.
First though, here are some interesting facts from the research.
Jonathan Marchessault is VGK’s leading goal scorer against more than half of the teams in the league (16 of 31)
William Karlsson is the closest with eight
Marchessault is alone in first place against 10 teams
David Perron is in first or second in points per game against 12 different opponents
William Carrier is second in goals against the Senators and Lightning
Jack Eichel ranks 10th all-time in VGK goals, yet is the leader against Columbus
Luca Sbisa is tied for most points per game against three different opponents (CGY, COL, DET)
The most goals a player has scored against Tampa Bay is three. Five players have done it, five more are also tied for second with two
The most points scored by one player against a single team is 28 by Jonathan Marchessault against San Jose, the most goals is 14 for William Karlsson against Anaheim
Brandon Pirri, Brendan Leipsic, Cody Glass, Daniil Miromanov, Dylan Coghlan, Cody Eakin, Brayden Pachal, Daniel Carr, Brad Hunt, Byron Froese, Kaedan Korczak, Tomas Hyka… and of course, Vadim Shipachyov all appear on this list
Anaheim Ducks Goals William Karlsson 14 Nic Roy/Jonathan Marchessault 8
Points William Karlsson 22 Mark Stone 21
Points Per Game James Neal 1.33 Mark Stone 1.31
Arizona Coyotes Goals Mark Stone 8 Max Pacioretty/Reilly Smith 7
Points William Karlsson 22 Mark Stone 21
Points Per Game Evgenii Dadonov 1.33 David Perron/Daniil Miromanov/Dylan Coghlan 1.00
Boston Bruins Goals Jonathan Marchessault/Mark Stone/Max Pacioretty 3 Paul Cotter/Cody Eakin/Reilly Smith 2
Points Mark Stone 7 Jonathan Marchessault 6
Points Per Game Mark Stone 1.40 Paul Cotter/Cody Glass/Vadim Shipachyov/Jack Eichel/Nate Schmidt/Alex Pietrangelo 1.00
The Golden Knights have 12 games left in the regular season, one that could go down in history as their winningest ever. Currently sitting at 92 points, VGK need to collect 17 more points to tie the 2017-18 team that finished with 109. That’s just one of many potential franchise highs the team and individuals on it can set.
Team Records
Points Record – 109 (17-18) Current – 92
Need: 9 wins would clinch the most points in team history. They could also go 8-3-1, 7-2-3, or 6-1-5 to tie.
Wins Record – 51 (17-18) Current – 43
Need: 8 to tie, 9 to break the record.
Goals Record – 268 (17-18) Current – 227
Need: 41 goals requires the Golden Knights to average 3.41 per game. This season, VGK are currently averaging 3.24. The goals per game record is 3.39, which was set in 2020-21 (the 56-game season).
The Golden Knights head into tonight’s game with 109 points looking to push that total to 111 and eventually 113 with another win in Calgary on Saturday. But before we get too far ahead of ourselves, we wanted to take a moment to show how unbelievable reaching 109 points is on its own… then, of course, we’ll project ahead.
In the 100 years the NHL has been around, there have been a total of 1,506 seasons teams have competed in, including teams from this year. Only 89 other teams have ever reached 109 points. That means the inaugural season of the Golden Knights already ranks in the 94th percentile of all NHL seasons in the history of NHL. In fact, it’s tied for the 75th best regular season in NHL history, and the Golden Knights have two games to go.
It took Vegas less than a year to do what Toronto couldn’t in 100. (Photo Credit: SinBin.vegas Photographer Brandon Andreasen)
Six teams, the Coyotes, Blue Jackets, Panthers, Kings, Wild, and Maple Leafs have never reached 109 points in a regular season.
But that’s just the here and now, we’ve still got games to watch tonight and Saturday, so, let’s look forward. There are five possible outcomes over the next two games for the Golden Knights. They can earn 4, 3, 2, 1, or 0 points which would see them finish their season with 113, 112, 111, 110, or 109 points. Here’s what each of those would look like compared to all other seasons played in NHL history.
Points
NHL Rank
NHL Percentile
Teams Never To Reach
113
T-33rd
97.01%
11*
112
T-46th
96.70%
9*
111
T-54th
95.88%
8*
110
T-63rd
95.09%
6
109
T-75th
94.02%
6
*Winnipeg (110) and Tampa Bay (110) are currently at their record highs. Both have 2 games left so they can reach up to 114.
Dominance. Didn’t think we’d be saying that three games in. (Photo by Brandon Andreasen)
In three games, the Vegas Golden Knights are 3-0, have scored 9 goals, allowed 4, and collected 6 points. The 31st franchise has made history on the ice and in the record books. Let’s break down the numbers.
First expansion team to start 3-0
Fastest expansion team to score first home goal
1st Period 2:31 (Thomas Nosek)
First expansion team to allow 4 goals or less in first three games
First expansion team to win an overtime game in first three games
Most SOG (100) for expansion team in first three games
Least PIM (22) for expansion team in first three games
Least Power Plays goals (1) given up in first three games
Best Penalty Kill (90%) for expansion team in the first three games
James Neal
Neal’s 5 goals in three games is second most by one expansion player (6G Chris Kontos-TBL)
Neal’s 5 goals in three games is the most in his career
Neal’s 11 shots in three games is the most by an expansion player to score multiple goals
Marc-Andre Fleury
Fleury’s 4 goals allowed is the least for an expansion goaltender in first three starts
Fleury’s .960 Save % is highest for expansion team in first three games
Fleury’s 4 goals allowed in first three starts is the least in his career
