Ivan Barbashev’s latest playoff run gave the Vegas Golden Knights exactly the kind of edge he’s built his game around: production with a heavy dose of punishment. He finished with six goals and eight assists in 22 postseason games, and while that line might read as solid on paper, it was the stretch before the final four games that really showed his value. Add in 110 hits, and Barbashev was doing more than filling a role - he was setting the tone.
That kind of impact fits the mold he established during Vegas’ 2023 Stanley Cup run, when he posted seven goals and 11 assists. He was less of a wrecking ball then, with 64 hits in that postseason, but the offense was still a major piece of the championship formula.
It’s hard to ignore why the Golden Knights went out and traded Zach Dean for the former St. Louis Blues winger in the first place.
Looking ahead to the 2026-27 season, Vegas is going to look different, and the roster will need answers in a few spots. The Golden Knights will need more shooters to help cover for one absence, and they’ll also need a physical presence to make up for another. Barbashev is in position to help on both fronts.
The shot volume is the first place to start. Last season, Barbashev posted a 17.3 shooting percentage, which is a strong mark and a sign of how efficient he can be when he decides to let it rip.
He was one of the most accurate shooters on the team, and that’s part of what made him such an appealing addition from St. Louis in the first place.
Still, Vegas has a problem to solve. Pavel Dorofeyev is gone, and someone has to absorb that scoring load.
The likely setup of Barbashev, Jack Eichel, and Mark Stone means the pressure shifts elsewhere. Eichel is already the shooter in that trio, while Stone is more of a passer, which leaves Barbashev as the player who needs to become more assertive.
His 133 shots on goal ranked sixth on the Golden Knights, and that number leaves room for more. Stone plays with a similar kind of patience, choosing his moments carefully, but Barbashev may need to be a little more aggressive if Vegas wants to replace Dorofeyev’s goals. He can still work from his preferred areas and stay selective, but the Golden Knights need him to take some chances and attack more often.
That could mean more medium-danger looks, too. Barbashev finished with 7.49 medium-danger xGoals in 2025-26, and those opportunities could matter even more if Vegas wants to avoid leaning too heavily on a pass-first approach.
Fans have already seen enough of the “pass first, shoot later” style, especially on the power play, and with Dorofeyev out of the picture, Barbashev is one of the players who has to help change that. If he doesn’t, the Golden Knights could be staring at a long May.
In Other News...
Jack Eichel Is Forcing A Golden Knights Debate Fans Never Expected
Jack Eichel has spent the last few seasons turning himself into one of the defining players in Golden Knights history. Since arriving in November 2021, he has become central to everything Vegas wants to do offensively, from setting the franchise single-season scoring record with 94 points this past season to driving the attack during the 2022-23 Stanley Cup run, when he led the NHL in playoff points.
What makes the conversation around Eichel interesting now is not whether he matters to the Golden Knights, but how his place stacks up against the other stars who helped shape the franchise. Jonathan Marchessault, William Karlsson and Mark Stone all have their own claims on the teams identity, and Eichels latest run of production is pushing a debate fans probably never expected when he first arrived in Vegas. [Read more 🡒]
Jack Eichel Is Giving Golden Knights Fans A Real Argument Again
Jack Eichel is back in the kind of conversation that usually follows the Golden Knights only when the roster is getting picked apart from the outside. Harman Dayal of The Athletic recently slotted Eichel and William Karlsson into Tier 3 among centers, a ranking that plenty of Vegas fans viewed as too modest for two players who have been central to the teams identity. It is the sort of small-sample, big-opinion debate that tends to follow a contender, especially when the franchise has built its success around star talent that outsiders still seem eager to place a rung lower than local eyes would.
The more interesting wrinkle is that the national chatter around Eichel is not all about where he ranks, but where he might be headed. Bleacher Report recently projected that he could become the first player in Golden Knights history to reach 100 points in a season, which would push the discussion from perception to production in a hurry. And with San Joses Macklin Celebrini landing a five-year deal worth an AAV of $18.8 million, higher than the contracts of both Mitch Marner and Eichel, the way top-end talent is being priced around the league is only adding another layer to the argument Vegas fans are already having. [Read more 🡒]
Golden Knights Let A Playoff Chance Slip Away Against The Sharks
A late power play was supposed to be the opening the Golden Knights needed to close out San Jose in the 2019 Stanley Cup playoffs, but the chance slipped away in Game 6 and changed the feel of the series in a hurry. Instead of sealing the first-round matchup, Vegas watched Tomas Hertl race the other way for a shorthanded game-winner that pushed the Sharks into a winner-take-all Game 7 and turned a commanding position into a fight to survive.
For the Golden Knights, the miss was bigger than one night. Their inability to cash in when the Sharks were vulnerable became one of the defining details of the series, and the loss helped set off a chain of consequences that reached beyond the ice. San Jose advanced, Vegas was left to sort through another bitter postseason exit, and the fallout eventually helped drive coaching changes the organization could not avoid. [Read more 🡒]