The betting market is asking a lot of the Golden Knights.
William Hill/Caesars has Vegas lined at 103.5 regular-season points, while FanDuel’s alternate numbers put the Golden Knights at -185 to reach 100-plus points and +200 to get to 110-plus. In plain English, the market seems to be circling a finish somewhere around 104 to 106 points.
That’s a hefty number for a team built around elite names, but also around age and health questions. Jack Eichel, Mitch Marner and Mark Stone give Vegas real top-end punch, yet a 103.5-point target means more than star power. It means surviving six months with one of the NHL’s oldest and most injury-sensitive cores intact.
Stone is the biggest example of that tension. When he’s on the ice, he produces at a high level - 73 points in just 60 games last season - but his injury history makes any full-season projection a gamble.
The same goes for the broader veteran group, with Alex Pietrangelo and William Karlsson needing to be handled carefully. Meanwhile, Eichel, Marner and Tomas Hertl are going to be carrying a massive share of the offense.
If one of them misses extended time, a few regulation wins can quickly turn into overtime losses, or wins into losses.
Vegas’ 2024-25 regular season also leaves plenty of room for caution. The Golden Knights went 39-26-17 and finished with 95 points, even while winning the Pacific Division and reaching the Stanley Cup Final. Their 17 overtime and shootout losses were the most in franchise history, a sign that close games too often slipped away before the final buzzer.
That matters because the postseason run may be boosting the market’s view of what this team really was over 82 games. Vegas did catch fire after its late coaching change, going 7-0-1 under John Tortorella before riding that momentum deep into the playoffs. But carrying that kind of stretch across an entire season is a very different task.
To clear 103.5, the Golden Knights need at least 104 points. That would mean a nine-point jump from last season, and that’s no small ask for a roster entering another transition under Ryan Craig. He has to install his system, keep veteran minutes under control and preserve the edge that showed up after Tortorella took over.
There’s also the issue of lost scoring. Vegas has to replace Pavel Dorofeyev’s team-leading 37 goals, and that’s not a small hole to patch. The Knights should still have plenty of bite on the power play, but their five-on-five depth could get tested fast if the schedule tightens up or injuries push younger players into bigger roles.
Goaltending adds another layer of uncertainty. Vegas gave up 250 goals last season and never really had a locked-in No. 1 who could consistently steal games. That level of netminding might be enough to keep this roster in the playoff picture, but topping 103.5 points probably requires better-than-average play in goal and stronger results in the one-goal games that shaped so much of last season.
A 47-28-7 finish for 101 points would still leave Vegas comfortably in the playoffs and very much in the Stanley Cup conversation, while also landing on the Under. That kind of outcome would already be a six-point improvement from last year.
So this isn’t a knock on the Golden Knights’ ceiling in April. It’s a judgment on the regular season grind: an older, injury-prone roster being asked to improve by at least nine points, replace its top goal scorer, adjust to another coach and get steadier goaltending over six demanding months.
Vegas may still be dangerous when the games get bigger. The question is whether it can clear this regular-season number first.
In Other News...
Golden Knights Prospect Made A Real Camp Statement In Preseason Opener
The Golden Knights opened their preseason slate with a 4-2 win over the Kings, and while the game had the usual September rust, there were enough encouraging signs to make it feel meaningful. Vegas looked organized enough defensively, killed penalties well and got a steady start from Adin Hill, which is exactly the kind of foundation a coach wants to see before the games start counting.
Jackson Hallum made the kind of first impression that gets noticed quickly in camp, scoring the game-winner and showing the speed and offensive pop that have to stand out for a young player trying to carve out a place. In a preseason opener filled with familiar tuning-up moments, his performance gave the Knights something a little more interesting to track as camp moves on. [Read more 🡒]
Golden Knights Got A Telling Prospect Answer In Saturdays Win
Adin Hills preseason work on Saturday gave the Golden Knights another useful data point as they continue sorting out both their crease and their young talent. Hill turned aside 17 of 19 shots in a 4-2 win over the Kings, while a pair of prospects helped supply some of the offense. Jackson Hallum and Viliam Kmec each chipped in key goals, a reminder that these exhibition games are as much about evaluating depth as they are about the final score.
Trevor Connelly was involved as well, putting three shots on goal without finding the scoresheet, which still offered a look at how the organizations prospects are handling NHL-adjacent pace and pressure. For Vegas, nights like this matter because they test more than just the veteran pieces. They also show which young players are starting to force attention, and which ones still need more runway before they can push into the conversation. [Read more 🡒]
Golden Knights May Have Found A New Fourth-Line Edge
Marc Gatcomb made a noticeable impression in the Golden Knights preseason game against the Kings, and it was the kind of shift-by-shift impact that tends to matter more in Vegas than box-score noise. He picked up a point, but just as importantly, he brought the physical edge fans associate with a reliable fourth-line role, leaning into battles along the boards and making himself felt in a game where depth players were trying to stand out.
For a team that moved on from Keegan Kolesar, that type of profile suddenly has a little more significance. Gatcombs contract and his style of play give the Golden Knights something they can use at the bottom of the lineup, especially if he keeps showing he can combine toughness with enough production to stay in the mix. [Read more 🡒]