Over the weekend, the Golden Knights did a wonderful job honoring the 2017-18 team that went on one of the most magical runs in American sports history, and captured the hearts of Las Vegas.
The return of so many familiar faces offered a reminder of what made that inaugural season special, not just on the ice, but away from it. In those early days, locker room conversations centered on a season no one quite knew what to expect from. At practice, players were still marveling at their white gloves and the novelty of wearing gear with Vegas across it.
There was a palpable exuberance around the team. And whenever head coach Gerard Gallant stepped behind a microphone, he seemed to return to the same three-letter word to describe what he wanted his players to have on the ice: Fun.
That message was so persistent that it could sometimes seem as though hockey itself was secondary. And in recent years, that word has disappeared from the vernacular.
Last season, no team was worse at shootout than the Vegas Golden Knights. VGK participated in nine shootouts in 2025-26 and won just one. Of the 11 teams that participated in at least nine, every other team won at least three, and 10 of the 11 won at least four.
Vegas shooters converted on just 16.1% of their attempts (5 for 31), the second-worst mark in the league, ahead of St. Louis, and the goalies stopped 59.3% (19 of 32), ranking 23rd out of 31 teams that participated in at least one.
Those shootout struggles left points on the table. Had things gone slightly differently down the stretch, they could have cost the Golden Knights a playoff berth, and ultimately the run that took them to their third Stanley Cup Final.
Enter: Ryan Craig.
In his first chance behind the bench in the shootout, Craig wasted no time in switching things up from last year. After electing to go first as the home team, Craig sent 23-year-old Braeden Bowman over the boards to take the first attempt.
There’s a lot of trust in all of our players and yet some guys get that opportunity. We saw Bowman do it in the preseason and Trevor as well. I’ve seen him do that at the American Hockey League level. And at that point, it’s a one-on-one with the goalie. I thought those guys did a real good job. -Ryan Craig
On Tuesday night, the Golden Knights recorded 37 shots on goal in their 5-2 opening night victory over the Chicago Blackhawks. It was the most SOG for Vegas in a season debut since 2022, and the 2nd most in an opener ever. Shockingly, Vegas landed 51 shots on opening night in the 2022-23 campaign. Mr. Jack “please shoot more” Eichel registered an astounding seven shots on goal that evening. This season, Eichel has started off with two shots and a 50% shooting percentage.
However, it wasn’t only Vegas’ forwards creating shooting chances on Tuesday night; VGK’s defensemen also got in on the action against the Blackhawks. The Golden Knights received 11 shots from the blueline, including five from Rasmus Andersson and Noah Hanifin. Only Trevor Connelly, Tomas Hertl and Mitch Marner exceeded 3 SOG in Game 1 of 84. Heck, even Jeremy Lauzon took three shots on Chicago’s net. If coach Ryan Craig drew up a game plan that called for more blueline shots, he got it from his group of six.
(Photo Credit: J. Tyge O’Donnell, LVSportsBiz.com)
A focal point for new head coach Ryan Craig this season was building a more balanced blue line, with Shea Theodore, Rasmus Andersson, and Noah Hanifin each anchoring a separate pairing. It came with a concern (which we wrote and talked about extensively) that it could lead to one of the big-name defensemen being underutilized.
On Opening Night, the Golden Knights stuck to that plan, distributing ice time extremely evenly across all three defensive pairings.
We’re aware of (trying to balance the minutes). We have three very good pairs in the sense that they can all defend. I think they all got used as the game went on, and we were fresh by the end. -Ryan Craig
A spread of four minutes between the ice time of the top defenseman and the bottom is impressively low. For comparison, Chicago’s spread between Bowen Byram and Ian Cole was more than 12 minutes. Only two of the other eight teams in action last night were under 10 minutes, and Florida clocked in at a whopping delta of 18 minutes.
Ryan Craig is rolling out a new look on the power play, and while it’s only one new player coming in, it’s going to give the unit a completely new vibe.
With Pavel Dorofeyev no longer in the picture, the like-for-like swap would have been to put Victor Olofsson in the shooter spot while keeping everything else the same. After all, the power play has been dynamite for the last two seasons, hitting at 26.2%, the second best rate in the NHL. And Olofsson was actually a part of it as Bruce Cassidy’s first choice to open the 24-25 season.
Instead, Craig is trying something different. Shea Theodore is replacing Dorofeyev on the top unit, but Mitch Marner will occupy Pavel’s spot in the circle opposite Jack Eichel. It seems like a small change, but it completely revamps the entire plan of attack for Vegas’ top power play unit.
VGK Top PP Unit Stone Eichel-Hertl-Marner Theodore
There is plenty to like about the adjustment. There is also plenty that could go wrong.
Marner’s creativity
One of the VGK power play’s biggest issues in recent seasons has been its tendency to stagnate when the puck reaches Eichel. It felt like the only way for the unit to create something dangerous was for Eichel to take the lead. With Marner now operating on the other side, that’s no longer the case. The puck can start on either side of the ice in the hands of one of the world’s most creative players. Eichel’s main options remain to Mark Stone or Tomas Hertl, but the risky option of sending the puck all the way across to Dorofeyev has been replaced with a simpler drop-off pass to Theodore in the high slot. On the other side, Marner can find Stone on the back door, Hertl in the bumper, or Eichel on the far side.
Interchange opportunities
When the unit consisted of five forwards, Marner was essentially stapled to the blue line. Because he’s by far the most reliable of the group to get back and kill a shorthanded opportunity, he didn’t really have the freedom to move around and create new looks either on or off of the puck. With Theodore in the mix, Marner will have more freedom to try and find soft spots in the opposing kill by shifting his positioning. And, because Theodore is a left-hand shot, if he and Marner end up swapping places, Eichel regains the option to zip the puck through the seam for a one-timer.
Stone becomes more of a goal threat
Mark Stone is somewhat of a wizard with the puck underneath the goal line on the power play. The number of times he found ways to beat defending sticks to get the puck to either Hertl or across to Dorofeyev is astounding. In the new setup, especially when the puck is on Marner’s stick, Stone is much more likely to operate above the goal line as a backboard either for a tip, pass, or shot pass. Before, Stone’s only real chance to score goals was on the classic jam play or collecting rebounds. Now, he’ll be able to use his incredible hands to finish off plays that are actually designed for him. He suddenly becomes the most dangerous option on the ice, which could open up a few more lanes to pass the puck to Hertl in the bumper.
These added layers should bring more versatility to a unit that occasionally went stale. However, they also take away some of the elements that made it one of the NHL’s best power-play units.
On-ice Training Camp begins today with the 66-man roster broken down into three sessions, skating at 9 AM, 11:30 AM, and 2 PM.
Thanks to a little tidbit from a recent article by Nick Cotsonika on NHL.com, the expectation is that Shea Theodore, Rasmus Andersson, and Noah Hanifin will each be in separate groups, and therefore slotted in each on separate pairs to open the season.
On defense, the Golden Knights likely will deploy puck-movers Shea Theodore, Rasmus Andersson and Noah Hanifin on different pairs, complemented by the more defensive-minded Brayden McNabb, Parker Wotherspoon and Jeremy Lauzon. McCrimmon said the defense likely will be more involved in the offense. –Nick Cotsonika on NHL.com
This is an ambitious move for new head coach Ryan Craig to put into action, as it will lead to some tricky decisions early in the season.
Splitting up the three puck-moving defensemen sounds great on paper, until it comes time to actually deploy them in games. The decade-long trusted pair of Theodore and McNabb will certainly remain VGK’s top pair. Behind them, Craig, along with assistant coach John Stevens, must decide whether Andersson or Hanifin will serve as the second pair, likely alongside Wotherspoon. That then leads to a $7+ million defenseman playing on the third pair.
Because the power play roles are all still expected to be filled by forwards, one of the Golden Knights’ highest-paid players is destined to play somewhere between 14-18 minutes a night rather than the closer to 22 they are all used to getting. Also, deployment is never equal, which means there will be a preferred offensive zone pair and a defensive zone one. More than likely, the player who falls to the third pair will also draw the short straw as the defensive-minded one.
Last season, Jeremy Lauzon and Kaedan Korczak who served as Vegas 3rd pair for much of the season, averaged 17:11 and 15:58, respectively. When he filled in, Ben Hutton’s ATOI was just 14:35.
Hanifin has averaged at least 20 minutes a night in each of the last seven seasons. Andersson has been over 23 minutes a game in each of the last 5 seasons and Theodore hasn’t been below 20 minutes in any of his nine seasons in Vegas.
The math doesn’t add up if all three of them are on separate pairs and none of them are on the top power play unit. It seems like a massive underutilization of at least one defenseman and maybe even two.
The appeal is obvious. Vegas could have a legitimate puck-moving presence on the ice for every five-on-five shift. But unless the Golden Knights are planning on leaning much more heavily on a third pair than ever before, someone is going to be asked to play far less than his resume and contract suggest he should.
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.
