Who Plays When On Special Teams?

The Golden Knights power play king. (Photo Credit: SinBin.vegas Photographer Brandon Andreasen)

The Golden Knights continue to be one of the most disciplined teams in the NHL. Vegas is one of the least penalized teams allowing 7.5 penalty minutes per game (PIM). Players have committed the fourth least PIMs in the league, and opponents have only 82 Power Play opportunities against (PPOA) the Golden Knights. For comparison sake, Nashville has allowed 114 PPOA.

When it comes to shorthanded (SH) situations, Gerard Gallant relies heavily on six players. Four out of the top five penalty killers are defensemen. Deryk Engelland clearly leads the group with 71:15 total SHTOI. Forwards Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, Reilly Smith, Cody Eakin and William Karlsson are also called upon to kill penalties for Gallant.

Only five players average more than 2:00 minutes per game killing penalties. It’s fairly obvious who Gallant trusts on a nightly basis. Gallant puts a lot of stock into the importance of penalty killing. It’s one of the more important issues that factor into lineup decisions and healthy scratches. If a guy puts up a bunch of PK time, he’ll likely to be in the lineup consistently or be replaced by someone who will gobble up that same PK time.

Power Play minutes are a little more distributed. Vegas is 11th in the league with 91 power-play opportunities. They’re 17th in the NHL with 17 PP goals scored. Ten players have amassed at least 45:00 (PPTOI) total minutes of PP time this season. Colin Miller is a PP machine, leading all VGK players with 79:18 total PPTOI. William Karlsson is next, skating a total of 74:58 man-advantage minutes.

When it comes to average PP minutes, 12 Golden Knights play more than 2:00 minutes per game. There’s a big drop after that, Eakin is next averaging 1:05 a game. Expect Theodore’s minutes per game to go up and Schmidt’s average PPTOI to decrease.