In the February Pacific Division Notebook, we noted that the Vegas Golden Knights had successfully reloaded their 2023 Stanley Cup winning roster to challenge again this season with a remodeled group that is once again in their prime. The return of William Karlsson added a missing piece and the late season coaching change that brought in John Torterella appears to have paid large dividends. Back in the Stanley Cup Final, we’ll find out in a matter of days if they’ll lift the Stanley Cup for the second time in franchise history.
The Vegas Golden Knights front office has earned a reputation for being ruthless in the pursuit of team success. To date, it’s been very effective and we can see the reloaded group on the Vegas roster in their late prime. Mitch Marner, Rasmus Andersson, and Noah Hanifin are all acquisitions since the Golden Knights first Stanly Cup victory that have helped keep a sizable chunk of the roster in their prime.
While the reloaded group has brought the Golden Knights back to the Stanley Cup Final, GM Kelly McCrimmon will have to continue to make moves to keep the Vegas roster in contention into the future. There’s still a sizable cohort remaining from the Golden Knights original championship roster that is getting into their mid 30s where age related decline becomes a real concern, particularly with a large group involved.
The best predictor of the future is often the past, so there’s no reason to think that the Golden Knights can’t or won’t make the necessary moves to reload their roster once again after this season. The players they’ve signed to long term contracts are those in the late prime cohort. The veteran group is on shorter contracts which should make it easier for the Knights to offload a few of them to mitigate the age decline effects from a large veteran group.
Using some of those veterans as trade chips might be the most efficient option for Vegas to refresh their roster this summer and beyond. Their pipeline is depleted, as they’ve continually used draft capital to acquire impact players that can help now. To date, it’s helped them take another run at a Stanley Cup. In the long term, it means they can’t count on help from their pipeline to help offset the losses from their veteran cohort. Based on past results though, we have to assume that the Golden Knights front office will make the moves they need to to remain competitive until they show us otherwise.
