The Golden Knights don’t play again until Thursday, meaning everyone can take a break for a while.
That makes this a perfect time to open up the mailbag when it comes to the state of the Knights (18-7-3), who are sitting in first place in the Pacific Division.
Here is a sampling of what questions arrived this week. Future ones can be sent to @DannyWebster21 on X, dannywebster21.bksy.social, or [email protected].
@IpsterRJI: Which one of the newest offseason acquisitions have impressed you the most?
Danny Webster: It has to be Victor Olofsson, who has three goals and two assists in eight games this season.
His shot arrived as advertised. He also seems to build chemistry with whoever he plays with.
Olofsson missed 20 games with a sprained ankle but returned with the same energy he started the season with. He appears to have a temporary home with center Tomas Hertl and right wing Alexander Holtz now that captain Mark Stone is back in the lineup.
@AceofGamesUK: At the beginning of the season, a lot of reports were made about how Vegas was going to score after losing Jonathan Marchessault. As the team that has scored the fourth-most goals in the league, I think it’s fair to say that they have more than one goal scorer, right?
Webster: The Knights have definitely exceeded expectations offensively. They’re scoring 3.50 goals per game, the seventh-most in the NHL.
It was never going to be easy to replace a 42-goal scorer like Marchessault. It needed to be a group effort, and it has been. Ten Knights skaters have at least five goals.
Left wing Ivan Barbashev has 13 goals in 28 games. His career high is 26. Right wing Pavel Dorofeyev has 12 goals. Left wing Brett Howden has a career-high 10.
All the Knights’ offseason departures up front — Marchessault, center Chandler Stephenson, left wing William Carrier and right wings Michael Amadio and Anthony Mantha — were going to open up opportunities for other players. Dorofeyev and Howden, among others, have taken advantage so far.
Louis Marshall: With the Rangers signing Igor Shesterkin to an eight-year deal, is it safe to assume that Adin Hill is in the Knights’ plans for the foreseeable future?
Webster: This summer’s goalie market definitely dried up when New York gave Shesterkin an eight-year, $92 million extension Friday, making the 28-year-old the highest-paid netminder in NHL history.
Hill is now in line to be the top free-agent goaltender available. He is in the final season of the two-year, $9.8 million extension he signed after helping the Knights win the Stanley Cup in 2023.
The 28-year-old has been on fire as of late. Hill is 6-1-1 his past eight starts and has a .938 save percentage and 1.73 goals-against average in that stretch.
The Knights took care of three pending free agents already this season by giving extensions to Howden and defensemen Shea Theodore and Brayden McNabb.
Hill could be next. Especially if he keeps up this level of play for the Knights and Team Canada, which he will represent in the 4 Nations Face-Off in February.
Contact Danny Webster at [email protected]. Follow @DannyWebster21 on X.
