The Vegas Golden Knights are already dealing with a couple of injury hits, and the names attached to them are enough to raise eyebrows in Henderson.
Per SinBin.vegas, Kai Uchacz has been labeled week-to-week by the Golden Knights’ head coach, while Raphael Lavoie is day-to-day. On their own, those updates might sound manageable. But there’s a bigger layer here, because both players matter to the organization’s depth picture, and Uchacz in particular had put himself on the radar.
Last season with Henderson, Uchacz put up 20 goals and 31 assists in 68 AHL games. That kind of production made him a dark horse to push for a spot in the Golden Knights’ lineup before the injury slowed him down. So even if these are lower-level roster issues on paper, they’re not nothing.
And that’s before you factor in the ripple effect on the Silver Knights. Braedan Bowman and Trevor Connelly could both be in the lineup to start the season, and losing offensive pieces while adjusting to a new head coach makes the picture even messier. The Uchacz update adds another complication to that mix.
The bigger concern, though, is what this says about Vegas’ health outlook more broadly. The Golden Knights haven’t looked especially cursed by injuries in the way some teams do, but there’s a clear reminder in the recent history of key players missing time.
A chart comparing selected players shows heavy workloads for Mark Stone, Brett Howden, Jack Eichel, and William Karlsson, with Karlsson standing out as the lone exception in terms of bulk playing time. Those four have been central to what Vegas has done in recent years, from a Pacific Division title to a Stanley Cup Final.
But 2023-24 was a different story. Stone and Eichel both missed significant time, and Karlsson also dealt with a lower-body injury.
Stone’s came on February 20 against the Nashville Predators, when he lacerated his spleen. Eichel went down with a lower-body injury on January 11 against the Boston Bruins.
Earlier that same month, Karlsson was hurt as well.
If you go back to 2021-22, the picture gets even rougher for Vegas. Eichel was also coming back from neck surgery that season, which is another reminder that the Golden Knights have had to manage more than their share of health issues over time.
So while the latest updates on Uchacz and Lavoie may not scream season-altering on their own, they do fit into a larger conversation around depth and durability in Vegas. Fans have seen Eichel stay on the ice for much of the last two seasons, and Stone’s recent ailments haven’t been as severe as some of the injuries he dealt with before. Still, there’s no reason to walk into this season expecting health to be a strength.
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