Could the Golden Knights be respectable in their first season?
I have already watched and read WAY too many articles about who the Vegas Golden Knights should draft #1 overall next year. After looking at the data and analyzing footage from both their prospects games and their two preseason games, I feel the Las Vegas Golden Knights are definitely underestimated. Why am I stating that the Las Vegas Golden Knights could be a hidden treasure in the West? It’s simple, they are better on the ice than what the team looks like on paper. Let’s break down this Western conference team, where they stand going into this year, and why I whole heartedly believe they are the dark horse team in the West.
VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS ~ It’s always tough being an expansion team. The team is built around players that other teams didn’t protect. In the end, you end up with a hodgepodge of players that at first don’t have any chemistry together, under brand new management, in a brand new city. Expansion teams have a history of being underwhelming when they first enter the league. Atlanta, Columbus, and Minnesota were all perfect examples of this trend; so many have pegged the Golden Knights to follow suit. Maybe though, just maybe, everyone’s writing them off a little too soon. Let’s look at who they have on the team and why they may just surprise a lot of people.
GOALTENDING ~ Las Vegas’ tandem goaltenders is going into the season as a top-tier tandem. Marc-Andre Fleury and Calvin Pickard are going to be a great 1-2 punch in goal for Las Vegas. I was absolutely shocked that Colorado did not try to either protect or make a deal to not give up Pickard. He has put up very impressive numbers as a backup goaltender, especially considering the disaster of a team he played for last year. Pickard has a career average of 2.77 GAA and a .914% save percentage. Marc-Andre Fleury is coming into this season with a 2.58 GAA and a .912% save percentage. With Fleury taking the starting load but also helping Pickard to develop further, Vegas has a bright future already in the goaltender department.
DEFENCEMEN ~ The Vegas Golden Knights took a ton of defencemen in the expansion draft, more than many people thought they would. Out of their picks, they definitely found some diamonds. Nate Schmidt, Jon Merrill, Luca Sbisa and Shea Theodore all look poised to be top 4 defencemen for this team. The Golden Knights picked a ton of young up and coming defencemen and a few older ones to help their development. All in all, even though their D-line doesn’t have that common household name, they certainly have talent, speed, and size on their side. It might take a little bit for them build chemistry together, but no doubt it will happen.
FORWARDS ~ Out of the different positions, the forwards seem to be the weakest for the Golden Knights, at least on paper. That being said, however, some of the forwards that Vegas was able to pick up just boggled my mind. How Jonathan Marchessault remained unprotected still bothers me to this day, but good job Vegas for snatching him up. The one thing that does plague the Golden Knights is that Vegas suffers from “star power”, in the sense that they don’t really have a player that will draw the crowds or will be the face of the franchise. Maybe that’s a good thing for right now though. They need time to get adjusted to not only the location but their teammates also. The forwards that Las Vegas have are good, some are on the edge of being great. They certainly haven’t had issues scoring in the preseason, but only time will tell how they play against the better defensive teams in the league when the season starts and when those goals matter a whole lot more.
On paper, this team looks underwhelming simply because there are a lot of names that people don’t recognize. Does that make this team a bad team? Absolutely not. They are a young, fast and large team. If their goaltenders keep playing as they have been, their defencemen find their pairings and playstyle sooner rather than later, and their forwards put up a decent amount of offense, then the Golden Knights might just surprise some teams and make some noise this 2017-2018 inaugural season.
