For much of the offseason, the Vegas Golden Knights were staring at the same uncomfortable question: how do you replace Pavel Dorofeyev’s goals?
His trade to the New York Rangers sent a real jolt through the roster. Dorofeyev had scored 35 goals and then 37 goals in the last two seasons, which meant he was responsible for roughly 13% and 14% of Vegas’ total goals in those years. That’s not a small piece to lose, and it was enough to make the offense feel like the biggest mystery hanging over the team.
The front office didn’t exactly answer that question with a splashy move. Free agency stayed quieter than some might have expected after the Finals loss, with Dylan Larkin remaining in Detroit and no major scoring name arriving to take over.
Instead, the Golden Knights leaned on a different plan: Victor Olofsson came back after a one-year absence, Brett Howden was expected to keep riding his scoring surge, Tomas Hertl and Rasmus Andersson were candidates to bounce back, and the hope was that a rookie or two could chip in. Ten games in, that blueprint has looked awfully smart.
Vegas hasn’t just survived without Dorofeyev - it has flattened opponents. The Golden Knights have scored five goals or more in five of their first 10 games, including a 5-2 win on opening night.
Three of those outings have reached six goals, and two of them came in the last two games alone. They matched that six-goal total three times through 10 games a year ago, but back then the scoring picture wasn’t nearly as much of a concern.
The bigger number is the one sitting at the top of the league standings: 41 goals. That gives Vegas the NHL lead, and its 4.10 goals per game rank third behind only Edmonton and Colorado. That’s a pretty striking place for this team to be considering the offseason anxiety about where the offense would come from.
The depth piece has been the real story. Only Mark Stone and Jack Eichel sit in the NHL’s top 25 in goals, but 13 of Vegas’ 20 skaters already have at least one goal.
Twelve have scored at least twice, and six are sitting at four goals or more. Even the players without goals have mostly still found ways to help; seven skaters are still scoreless, but five of them have at least one point.
The only exceptions right now are Jeremy Lauzon and Parker Wotherspoon.
There has been some favorable bounces in the mix, too. Vegas is at 6.22 goals above expected at the moment. Even so, the underlying chance creation has been strong, with the Golden Knights posting 34.78 expected goals for, second only to the team they lost to in the Finals.
The stars have done their part as well. Eichel is off to his usual scorching start, with 18 points in 10 games and five goals among them.
He’s been shooting more and converting at a better rate. Stone has also caught fire lately, scoring a natural hat trick against Calgary and then adding another goal against the Penguins.
Then there’s Olofsson, who looked like a seamless fit right away. He scored four goals in four games before getting injured, which is exactly the kind of immediate payoff Vegas was hoping for when it brought him back.
And Trevor Connelly has turned into a real early-season surprise. The former first-round pick cracked the roster out of camp and has already put up four goals and seven points, both of which lead all NHL rookies. That has him in the thick of the Calder Trophy conversation.
There’s still a long way to go, of course, but right now Vegas’ offense looks less like a question mark and more like a machine. And if Olofsson comes back and picks up where he left off, it could get even louder from here.
In Other News...
Golden Knights May Be Unlocking The Rasmus Andersson They Expected
Rasmus Andersson has started to look a lot more like the defenseman the Golden Knights were hoping to get, and the difference may be as simple as who is skating beside him. In recent games, Andersson has been noticeably more involved at both ends of the ice with Jeremy Lauzon as his partner, chipping in goals and assists while also getting in the way of pucks and helping steady the back end.
The contrast has been hard to ignore compared with his earlier pairing with Parker Wotherspoon, who has yet to record a point this season. With Wotherspoon expected back from injury at some point, the Golden Knights will have a decision to make about how they want to configure their blue line, especially if Andersson keeps producing the way he has with Lauzon. [Read more 🡒]
Golden Knights Face A Bigger Early Test Than This Hot Start
Three straight wins and 17 goals have given the Golden Knights a fast start and a little early momentum, but the schedule is about to offer a much sterner look. The next stop comes against the Tampa Bay Lightning, a matchup that should tell plenty about how real this surge feels and whether Vegas can keep piling up offense against a team built to push back.
For a club that has looked sharp so far, this is the kind of game that can either validate the buzz or cool it in a hurry. The Knights have banked the points they were supposed to take, but the Lightning bring a different level of resistance, and Vegas will need to show this hot opening is more than just a friendly stretch of October hockey. [Read more 🡒]