Chandler Stephenson is wasting no time making Seattle’s offense look dangerous, and Sunday was another reminder for the Golden Knights of what walked out the door.
The former Vegas forward didn’t find the net against the Calgary Flames, but he still finished with two assists in Seattle’s 6-1 win. That gave the Kraken six goals in a game for the second time in their first three outings, with Stephenson helping steer the attack from start to finish.
Through Seattle’s first two games, Stephenson has already piled up a goal and three assists. He scored in the season opener against Calgary, then came right back and set up two more on Sunday in the rematch.
His first helper of the night came on Bobby McMann’s opening-period goal. Later, in the third, he added another assist when Jordan Eberle buried Seattle’s sixth goal.
That’s a strong opening stretch by any measure.
It also hits a little differently from the Vegas perspective, given Stephenson’s track record in a Golden Knights sweater. He spent five seasons with the organization and appeared in 327 regular-season games for Vegas, putting up 75 goals and 162 assists for 237 points.
His work didn’t stop there. Stephenson also logged 65 playoff games with the Golden Knights, including 22 in the 2022-23 run, and chipped in 10 goals and 10 assists during that postseason as Vegas marched to its first Stanley Cup.
Before arriving in Vegas, Stephenson had spent the first five years of his NHL career in Washington. But it was his time with the Golden Knights that changed the direction of his career, turning him into one of the club’s most productive forwards and a key piece of a championship team.
Seattle clearly brought him in to add offense, and so far he’s delivering. Two games in, he’s been involved in four goals, and Sunday showed he doesn’t need to score to leave a mark.
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