Yahoo Sports 5 Burning Questions Facing The Golden Knights For The Upcoming 204-2025 Season
In just about 2 weeks the Vegas Golden Knights will kick off their training camp ahead of the 2024-2025 season.
In what was an unusually quiet off-season for Knights GM Kelly McCrimmon in terms of adding big name players to the Knights roster, the Knights did however undergo changes their roster.
The Knights saw six regulars walk out the door on July 1st. Forwards Jonathan Marchessault, Chandler Stephenson, Anthony Mantha, Michael Amadio and William Carrier went elsewhere to greener pastures as well as defenseman Alec Martinez who signed with the Chicago Blackhawks. The Knights also traded goaltender Logan Thompson in a draft day trade to the Washington Capitals.
Related: Golden Knights lose 6 players to free agency; sign Zach Aston Reese, Tanner Laczynski
To fill some of the holes left by their departures, the Knights signed depth forwards Tanner Laczynski and Zach Aston-Reese as well as former Washington Captial and Toronto Maple Leafs' goaltender Ilya Samsonov to fill the back-up role behind Adin Hill.
The only forwards the Knights acquired this off-season that have some potential top-six upside were former Buffalo Sabre Victor Oloffsson who the Knights signed as a UFA. The Knights also acquired former 7th overall pick in the 2020 NHL draft in Alexander Holtz from the New Jersey Devils along with goaltender Akira Schmid in exchange for Paul Cotter.
While the Knights roster may not have improved from last year, they are still expected to compete for a Pacific division crown this year. With that said, there are a lot of questions heading into the season which we will get to now.
1. Who will step up to replace Jonathan Marchessaults' goal scoring production?
The Knights' biggest loss this off-season was undoubtedly the loss of original Golden Knight in Jonathan Marchessault. The 33-year-old Marchessault had a career high 42 goals last season for the Knights. Including last season, Marchessault has led the Knights in goals in each of the last 3 years. With Marchessault now in Nashville, the Knights will look elsewhere in the lineup to replace his goal production. The Knights will look to star forward Jack Eichel to shoulder that responsibility or hope that William Karlsson can get back to level of production when he scored 43 goals during the Knights inaugural season back in 2017-2018.
2. Can Knights' Captain Mark Stone stay healthy?
There is no doubt that Mark Stone is one of the best two-way players in the NHL when he is healthy. The problem for the Golden Knights is that Stone has been unable to avoid landing on IR or LTIR during his tenure with the Knights. Aside from the 2020-2021 56-game covid shortened season when Stone only missed one game, Stone has not played in at least 70 games or more since then 2016-2017 season when he was with the Ottawa Senators. Last year Stone scored at almost a point-per-game clip, scoring 53 points in 56 games. It is imperative that Stone stay healthy for a full season.
3. Can Ilya Samsonov get back to form?
As we wrote about a couple of weeks ago, which version of Ilya Samsonov the Knights will be getting is big question mark. Last season was definitely a rough one for Samsonov. The former 1st round draft pick of the Washington Capitals in 2015, was placed on waivers by the Toronto Maple Leafs prior to the new year to find his game after struggling mightily. Samsonov was re-called shortly after and spent the rest of the season with the Leafs, but it was the 26-year-old Joseph Woll who performed best for Toronto. Samsonov would ultimately finish the season with the worst statistics of his career. While the goaltender had a win-loss record of 23-7-8, Samsonov finished with a save percentage of .890 and a goals against average of 3.13. The Knights are hoping the version of Samsonov that will back-up Adin Hill is the one who finished his rookie year with the Capitals back in 19-20 with a career best .913 save percentage.
4. Will Alexander Holtz prove he can be a top-six goal scorer at the NHL level?
When the New Jersey Devils drafted Alexander Holtz with the 7th pick in the 2020 NHL draft they envisioned him riding shotgun with superstar center Jack Hughes for years to come on their top line. Unfortunately for the Devils, Holtz didn't develop well enough to their liking, ultimately leading up to his trade this past June. While Holtz did score a career high 16 goals last year in his first full 82 game season, the Devils didn't see enough from the young forward to give him prime minutes over the likes of veteran sniper Timo Meier or another young forward in Dawson Mercer or Jesper Bratt. The Knights are hoping that with an increased role in Vegas he can blossom into a a legitimate goal scorer they can place with a top center in either Jack Eichel, William Karlsson or Tomas Hertl.
Related: Golden Knights Hopeful Alexander Holtz Will Have Breakout Season With Fresh Start
5. Can rookie Brendan Brisson make an impact at the NHL level?
The former Michigan Wolverine standout made his NHL debut last season for the Golden Knights after stellar production in the AHL last year for the Henderson Silver Knights. Brisson scored 38 points in 52 games for Henderson earning him 15 games with the Golden Knights last season. Brisson is considered one of the Knights best offensive prospects that is close to being NHL ready. To understand the scope of his potential, in Brissons' Sophmore season at Michigan he led the Wolverines in goals and his 42 points was only 1 point behind Matty Beniers who went on to win the Calder trophy as the leagues top rookie in the 22-23 season with the Seattle Kraken.
Related: Knights' Brendan Brisson Poised For Increased Role This Season
