The Golden Knights’ 2025-26 regular season left plenty of room for a bounce-back, even if the standings still looked respectable on the surface. Vegas won the Pacific Division and the Western Conference, but the bigger picture was a team that tied its franchise low with 39 wins and finished with more losses than wins for the first time.
That’s why the case for a stronger 2026-27 regular season starts with the simplest idea of all: things were already shaky, and they can’t get much worse. Vegas still has the kind of top-end talent that keeps it in the Stanley Cup conversation, with Jack Eichel and Mitch Marner leading the way. But the regular season should also benefit from a few specific changes that point toward a cleaner, steadier year.
The biggest one is behind the bench. Last season, the Golden Knights largely tuned out Bruce Cassidy down the stretch, and the mix of an angry coach and a pile of injuries pushed the team close to missing the playoffs for a second time.
John Tortorella stepped in and steadied things, but his run came with its own baggage. The media fiasco that cost Vegas a second-round pick was enough for McCrimmon to turn to Ryan Craig, a younger voice who has spent time with the Henderson Silver Knights and as a Golden Knights assistant.
That should mean less hostility and less noise around the team.
There’s also a reason to expect a little more punch on the back end. Kaedan Korczak’s 2025-26 season was fine defensively, with 3.6 defensive point shares, but the offense never really came along.
He finished with three goals and 13 assists in 78 games, which added up to just 0.3 offensive point shares. Parker Wotherspoon offers a different profile.
He posted 27 assists for the Pittsburgh Penguins last season, including 12 primary assists, and finished with 5.6 point shares overall, split between 1.2 offensive point shares and 4.4 defensive point shares. On paper, that makes him the clearer upgrade.
And then there’s the rest of the Pacific Division, which hasn’t exactly slammed the door on Vegas. The San Jose Sharks made moves for Darnell Nurse and Jacob Trouba, but that was the most notable push from the division this summer.
The Seattle Kraken, Vancouver Canucks, and Calgary Flames have all had what the source describes as tanking jobs, and that’s nearly half the division. The Los Angeles Kings added older pieces like Erik Haula and Corey Perry, while the Edmonton Oilers’ biggest move was Frederik Andersen, who was replaced by Brandon Bussi in the Stanley Cup Final.
Taken together, those changes don’t exactly scream leap forward.
So while the Golden Knights may lose some depth on the lower lines, the overall setup still points in one direction: a better regular season than the one they just survived.
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