Vegas Golden Knights: Coming Down to Earth

The Vegas Golden Knights fairy tale 2017/18 season may have ended in disappointment, but the NHL club still enjoyed the greatest inaugural campaign in North American pro sports history. The first year franchise clinched the Pacific Division and Western Conference before running out of steam and bowing out in five games against the Washington Capitals in the Stanley Cup final. The squad went 51-24-7 for 109 points with Gerard Gallant being named the league’s coach of the year and George McPhee the general manager of the season. In addition, forward William Karlsson took home the Lady Byng Trophy as the NHL’s most sportsmanlike player and defenseman Deryk Engelland captured the Mark Messier Leadership Award.

There’s no doubt the Golden Knights took everybody by surprise last year with their work ethic, timely scoring and exceptional goaltending. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that was partly fuelled by emotion and pure adrenaline. It’s sad to say, but Las Vegas was unfortunately brought together as a community in October, 2017 following the tragic mass shooting on the Strip. We can’t overlook the determination factor either as the roster was assembled with unwanted players from the league’s other 30 clubs. These guys obviously had something to prove to their former bosses and prove it they did.

If we fast forward to 2018/19, we find the club’s dream start hasn’t exactly turned into a nightmare, but the franchise has been brought back down to earth somewhat, especially after going 6-1 in the preseason. They haven’t really stumbled out of the gate, but at their quarter mark of the campaign the Knights were sitting in seventh place in the eight-team Pacific Division. They were only six points out of first place though with a long way to go to make up some ground. Most fans weren’t surprised however since hockey players are the same as everybody else and it’s just human nature to eventually come down from a state of euphoria.

Of course there are also a few other factors in the mild descent of the team and we’ll check them out. To start, the rest of the league is definitely better prepared to face Vegas this season. They know exactly what to expect from their opponents and all bring their A game when they meet. The club also lost two of its top scorers from its debut campaign as forwards James Neal and David Perron headed to the Calgary Flames and St. Louis Blues respectively as free agents during the summer. Neal ranked fourth in goals on the squad last year with 25 and was 10^th in assists at 19 and sixth in points with 44. Perron led the team in assists with 50, was sixth in goals with 16 and third in points at 66.

No matter who you bring in as replacements, that’s a good chunk of offense that has suddenly disappeared. To make matters worse, defenseman Nate Schmidt was suspended for the first 20 games of 2018/19 after testing positive on a drug test before the season faced off. Schmidt was tied with Colin Miller for most assists on the Knights’ blue line last season at 31 and added five goals to finish second behind Miller in defenseman scoring with 36 points. His loss has certainly been felt and it’ll be interesting to see if the team improves now that he’s eligible to return to the lineup.

McPhee did replace Neal and Perron and did so by acquiring Max Pacioretty in a trade with the Montreal Canadiens and fellow forward Paul Stastny was signed to a three-year $19.5 million deal as a free agent from the Winnipeg Jets. It cost the Knights a second round draft pick in 2019 along with forwards Tomas Tatar and Nick Suzuki to pick up the 30-year-old Pacioretty. It would be unfair to call Pacioretty a bust this early, but he’s been taking his time fitting in with the team with just two goals and two assists in his first 16 games. And as luck would have it, the 32-year-old Stastny played just three pointless games to start the season before being shelved with an injury. This resulted in Gallant using Erik Haula as the second-line center, but he was also injured in mid-November and could be out for two months.

Haula was a big part of last year’s attack with 29 goals and 26 assists in 76 games. Once he and Stastny return and Pacioretty gets on track the Knights’ offense should pick up. But to be honest, just about everybody on the roster other than Jonathan Marchessault and Alex Tuch have been struggling to replicate last year’s numbers. Tuch has been scoring at about a point-per game pace, but missed eight of the team’s first 20 games due to injuries. As far as the goaltending goes, Marc-Andre Fleury turns 34 years old on November 28^th and while that’s not ancient for a goalie, he hasn’t been as sharp as last season. Fleury posted a 2.24 goals-against average in 46 games last year along with a 92.7 save percentage. At the quarter mark this year his numbers were 2.60 and 90.1.

Even if the Knights did set all types of records in 2017/18 they’re still just like every other NHL team. This means they have to deal with injuries, slumps, and dips in production from their top players. Have they been as good this year as they were last season? No. But they haven’t been that bad either. With most of the season still ahead of them, Schmidt returning to the lineup, and their injured players hopefully coming back before too long, things should get better down the road rather than worse. However, if Stastny and/or Haula’s status changes and either one is out for the season, we may see McPhee pull the trigger on a trade to replace their offense. In fact, he may want to contact the Toronto Maple Leafs before December 1^st to see how their contract negotiations are going with William Nylander.