(Photo Credit: SinBin.vegas Photographer Brandon Andreasen)
For the first time in franchise history last season, the Golden Knights’ power play was a legitimate weapon. The VGK PP converted on 53 of their 187 opportunities for a staggering 28.3%. That number was more than 6% better than any previous Vegas team in the past, and it ranked 2nd in the entire NHL, the first time VGK have ever been in the Top 5.
There was a slight shift in philosophy from the Golden Knights in regards to deployment on the power play in 2024-25 compared to years past, which had a major impact on the success rate. For the first time in the Bruce Cassidy era, and for the most part the only time in VGK history, last year’s team went with a truly unbalanced pair of power play units.
Jack Eichel was on the ice for 72% of VGK’s total power play time in the regular season, and that number jumped to 83% in the playoffs. In other words, on every two-minute power play, Eichel was on the ice for 1:27 in the regular season and a whopping 1:40 in the playoffs. The rest of the top unit didn’t lag too far behind.
Here are the regular season numbers.
| PP TOI | PP TOI % | On Ice PP Goals | On Ice PP Goals % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jack Eichel | 213:13 | 71.8% | 47 | 88.7% |
| Tomas Hertl | 197:01 | 66.3% | 46 | 86.8% |
| Shea Theodore | 178:04 | 59.9% | 32 | 60.4% |
| Pavel Dorofeyev | 177:16 | 59.7% | 34 | 64.2% |
| Mark Stone | 173:07 | 58.3% | 41 | 77.4% |
| Noah Hanifin | 104:45 | 35.3% | 19 | 35.8% |
| Nicolas Roy | 84:19 | 28.4% | 9 | 17.0% |
| Victor Olofsson | 77:49 | 26.2% | 15 | 28.3% |
| William Karlsson | 75:12 | 25.3% | 8 | 15.1% |
| Ivan Barbashev | 64:39 | 21.8% | 5 | 9.4% |
| Alex Pietrangelo | 63:39 | 21.5% | 3 | 5.7% |
| Alexander Holtz | 28:30 | 9.6% | 2 | 3.8% |
| Reilly Smith | 16:43 | 5.6% | 2 | 3.8% |
| Brett Howden | 8:57 | 3.0% | 0 | 0.0% |
| Brandon Saad | 6:01 | 2.0% | 1 | 1.9% |
And the postseason numbers.
| PP TOI | PP TOI % | On Ice PP Goals | On Ice PP Goals % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jack Eichel | 43:30 | 83.4% | 7 | 87.5% |
| Tomas Hertl | 38:04 | 73.0% | 5 | 62.5% |
| Shea Theodore | 34:28 | 66.1% | 7 | 87.5% |
| Pavel Dorofeyev | 22:22 | 42.9% | 2 | 25.0% |
| Mark Stone | 36:01 | 69.1% | 6 | 75.0% |
| Noah Hanifin | 14:49 | 34.2% | 1 | 12.5% |
| Nicolas Roy | 12:42 | 24.4% | 2 | 25.0% |
| Victor Olofsson | 17:31 | 33.6% | 4 | 50.0% |
| William Karlsson | 11:46 | 22.6% | 2 | 25.0% |
| Ivan Barbashev | 12:43 | 24.4% | 1 | 12.5% |
| Alex Pietrangelo | 4:28 | 8.6% | 1 | 12.5% |
| Alexander Holtz | 0:00 | 0.0% | 0 | 0.0% |
| Reilly Smith | 7:43 | 14.8% | 1 | 12.5% |
| Brett Howden | 0:49 | 1.6% | 1 | 12.5% |
| Brandon Saad | 0:57 | 1.8% | 0 | 0.0% |
The top unit of Eichel, Hertl, Stone, Theodore, and Dorofeyev was essentially given 80 seconds of the 120 before they were changed for the second unit. The second unit rarely started the power play on the ice, and even when the second unit was given a chance, oftentimes Eichel would stay out there with them.
In the regular season, the Golden Knights scored a total of four (yes, four) power play goals when neither Eichel nor Hertl was on the ice. In 183 minutes with both Eichel and Hertl, VGK potted a whopping 44 power play goals, or 14.39 per 60 minutes. There were 70:16 without either of them, and the number dipped to 3.42 goals per 60 minutes.
The reason why this is significant moving forward is that the deployment between first and second units is unlikely to change this season. If anything, it might get even more lopsided. That means, with Mitch Marner coming in, someone will be relegated to the second power play unit, which, for all intents and purposes, means not really even on the power play at all.
The two options are Pavel Dorofeyev and Shea Theodore. Pavel scored 13 of his 35 goals on the PP while Theodore notched 19 of his 57 points. It probably won’t impact the team all that much, but someone’s numbers are going to take a massive hit because of Marner’s presence on special teams.
The idea that whoever comes off the top unit will still get plenty of opportunity on the second unit is nice in theory, but in reality, the second unit in the current VGK setup is really just purgatory as the clock ticks back to 5-on-5. Either a player is one of the five on the first unit and in line for big offensive numbers, or they aren’t, and it’ll be challenging to get to 50 points, no matter how good the player is.
NAM
There is no doubt that Marner is talented and adds more true talent to this team, but this is just anther post about how does this actually help the team? He isn’t a goal scorer and being added to a team that really doesn’t have any true goal scorers outside of a Doro. I feel like they could have picked up another shooter or not let olofsson go. Regardless, I still just don’t see the full value of the fit. Maybe with enough elite distributors they can force more spread out goals by the rest of the guys, but this just screams like a glaring issue to me. I am ok if they prove me wrong.
Pistol Pete
So what is the cut off where a player’s goals per 82 games means he’s a goal scorer or not? Imo if you are 30+ and Eichel is 32 you are one. Marner’s 28 is surely way above the league average. The hope is when playing together they enhance each other’s scoring. Hopefully this will be a reboot for Marner and both be and Eichel will score 30+. A little optimism never hurts!
https://youtu.be/lrbAX6M-r1c?si=dp2jTPQrBQnzOCaU
ThG
Age discrimination is illegal
Thg
Lasti tim3 I ch3cked there is a p1 and 2 units on pp
Mark
How about keep pp1 the same… Eichel, Stone, Hertl, Dorofeyev, Theodore.
Pp2 Marner, Karlson, Saad, Howden, Hannifan?
Ken Boehlke
I don’t think the idea of acquiring a 100-point player and not playing him on the power play is going to fly.
(The whole point of this article was to show that the 2nd unit is used so sparingly that it barely even counts as a unit.)
larry
And a further point to the article should be that if the Power Play Unit can somehow be further improved with the addition of Marner, and could somehow rival what the ^%$%* oilers were 2 years ago when it seemed like a foregone conclusion they would score every time they had the man advantage, this would be a further feather in the cap as other teams would grow to fear the unit hitting the ice.
Mark
I was thinking more, have 2 lines that have equal probability of scoring. Having 2 of the best puck passers in the game leading 2 straight minutes of mayhem rather than one line being gassed after 1:40 and the second line barely getting a chance to set up was counter productive at times. Splitting them could lead to more chances both during the pp and in the next shift afterwards as well.
ThG
Evil sick twisted Dems cherry pick photo shopped pics and their own Clinton involvement, and four years of doing nothing. Pedo hypocritical gender benders
TS
The PEDOS are Epstein and his Bro Bud Trump
.Clinton, ditto. The hundreds of UNDERAGED YOUNG G- I- R- L- S who were VICTIMiZED by these PEDOS
DO NOT LIE. Trump was involved, BET ON IT
knights fan in minny
Still angry and unhinged Trump is here to stay enjoy it
ThG
Moron ignores fact that victims disavowed that trump and Clinton were not involved according to their own words. What a lying moe
TS
Were YOU there?? Clinton and Trump: Frequent Flyers on the Mile- high Epstein sex jet. What would they be doing there on multiple trips— taking PIX?. Interviewing all the undeage girls for jobs? Pr MAYBE taking part in the underage sex on this SEX JET??. Tell me: woukd YOU take a ride on his plane, JUST for the peep show?? Come on, let’s be honest– NO.ONE FLEW ON THAT PLANE UNLESS THEY WANTED A LITTLE FOR THEMSELVES.
TS
That’s like a man gping to a bordello JUST to enjoy the view. Come on, man..