After making the Stanley Cup Final in their inaugural year, the Vegas Golden Knights entered year 2 with some high expectations. Once again they put together a strong season finishing 3rd in the Pacific Division and tied for 15th overall. Heading into the playoffs they looked and played like a true contender but then disaster struck. The Knights had a 3-1 series lead over the San Jose Sharks only to let it get all the way back to 3-3 and then a 5-minute major gave the Sharks the opportunity to score 4 straight goals, forcing overtime before the eventual knock-out punch that ended the Knights season. 

Additions: Jimmy Schuldt

Subtractions: Tobias Lindberg, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, Daniel Carr, Ryan Carpenter, Nikita Gusev, Eric Haula, Colin Miller

Forwards:

The Knights have the 5th best top-6 and the best bottom-6 in the league. Add in a full season of Mark Stone and this lineup looks pretty stacked. ]

Defense:

Nate Schmidt and Shea Theodore are solid players but will the rest of the lineup be able to keep pace? Jimmy Schuldt looks like a stud coming out of St. Cloud State but he’ll need to prove he can do it at the NHL level.

Goalies:

Marc-André Fleury continues to put in some impressive performances, using his athleticism to make game-saving saves time and time again. Malcolm Subban is still a question mark as the backup as he’ll be counted on to play a larger amount of games this season in order to keep Fleury fresh for playoffs.

The Point Prediction:

We expect the Knights to build on another strong season after such a heartbreaking end. They’ll take over the second spot in the Pacific Division while moving up the overall standings to an 8th place finish.

 

(Photo by David Becker/NHLI via Getty Images)