In the salary cap era, NHL teams often find themselves trying to plug holes in the playoffs with inexperienced, young players. The Vegas Golden Knights feel fortunate that they can deal with Nicolas Hague’s day to day lower body injury by replacing him with a three-time Stanley Cup champion. Martinez, a regular on last year’s Stanley Cup team, played 15:30 in the Vegas 3-1 win against the Dallas Stars in Game 2. He was paired with Zach Whitecloud. Martinez won two Cups with the Los Angeles Kings before winning one last season with the Golden Knights. “Losing Haguer was unfortunate,” Vegas goal ..read more

Every time Jonathan Marchessault takes the ice he reminds the Vegas Golden Knights how much they need him and why they may not be able to afford to keep him. Marchessault won the Conn Smythe Trophy last year by leading the offensive charge in the Vegas Golden Knights’ march to their first Stanley Cup Championship. Wednesday, Marchessault continued his impressive postseason production with a goal and an assist to help Vegas post a 3-1 triumph against the Vegas Golden Knights. With his two points, pending UFA Marchessault now has a 12-game playoff points streak, dating to last season. The No. 8 ..read more

The Vegas Golden Knights have proven to be trend setters since entering the NHL in 2017. They’re at again this spring in the Stanley Cup playoffs. When the postseason got underway Monday, Logan Thompson was between the posts as Vegas beat the Dallas Stars 4-3. No surprise there. During the regular season, Thompson would lead the Golden Knights in games (46), starts (42), wins (25) and GAA (2.70). His victory Monday, though, was his first-ever in Stanley Cup action. He’ll be back between the posts for Game 2 on Wednesday. Marchessault on Logan Thompson: I'm definitely happy for him. Like ever ..read more

The addition of Tomas Hertl through a trade with the San Jose Sharks has powered the Vegas Golden Knights’ power play like he was a lithium-ion battery Since Hertl entered the Vegas lineup, the Golden Knights are nine-for-17 (52.9%) with the man advantage. That includes the two power play goals, one of them netted by Hertl, in Game 1 against the Dallas Stars.  Before Hertl’s arrival, the Vegas power play ranked 21st in the NHL at 18.6%. Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy says Hertl has given his team the net-front presence that they have lacked on the power play. He’s 6-foot-3, and boasts excellen ..read more

The Vegas Golden Knights don’t believe they need to  “grip it and rip it.” “We are not a high volume shot team,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. Putting up 31 shots-on-goal per game in the regular season, the Golden Knight were in the middle of the pack in that statistical category. The Golden Knights don’t fret too much about shots as long as they are getting some Grade A chances and they are playing well. But it does make fans a bit nervous that Vegas only had 15 shots on goal in Monday’s 4-3 win against the Dallas Stars in Game 1 of their Western Conference quarterfinal. Vegas totaled ..read more

There’s no substitute for experience, which the Vegas Golden Knights made abundantly clear during their 4-3 Game 1 victory over the Dallas Stars as the Stanley Cup playoffs got underway. Several key elements from last season’s Stanley Cup win were playing starring roles as the Golden Knights went into Dallas and swiped home-ice advantage from the Stars. Captain Mark Stone, back in action after missing 26 games due to a ruptured spleen, took just 1:23 to get on the board. He would open the scoring with a power-play marker. THE GLORIOUS RETURN OF #ExpressiveMarkStone pic.twitter.com/n1kQKHQke6 ..read more

Captain Mark Stone announced he would be in the Vegas Golden Knights’ lineup tonight in Game of best-of-seven Western Conference quarterfinal against the Dallas Stars. Stone hasn’t played since lacerating his spleen Feb. 20 game against the Nashville Predators. His announcement surprises no one, least of all the Stars who anticipated he would be back as soon as doctors cleared him to practice (with a non-contact) jersey the day after the regular-season ended. The original prognosis was Stone would be out three to four months, but that presumably did not take into account how badly he would wan ..read more

Like the Vegas Golden Knights, the 1991-92 Pittsburgh Penguins were a star-studded squad that was also defending Stanley cup champions. They would endure a tumultuous, up-and-down regular season, and a dismal start to the playoffs. Then they won back-to-back Stanley Cup titles. When looking at the route taken by those Penguins, there are some obvious parallels to these Golden Knights. Eichel: The group we have understands that once you get into the playoffs, anything can happen. pic.twitter.com/6yEMTu0qkk — x-Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) April 20, 2024 Pittsburgh was 22-12-4 at the ..read more

How teams use the Long-Term Injured Reserve to increase salary cap space is always a fire starter for fan debates, podcast rants and sportswriters looking for a hot take. The Vegas Golden Knights, mostly because of Mark Stone’s injury history, are often in the middle of the conversation. They use the LTIR rules to their advantage, like they did this year when they used Stone’s LTIR cap relieve to acquire Tomas Hertl, Noah Hanifin and Anthony Mantha before the NHL trade deadline. If Stone isn’t hurt, they would not have been able to fit all three of those players under the cap. Stone suffered a ..read more

Vegas Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy has a goaltending decision heading into Monday’s Game 1 against the Dallas Stars. That’s much different than a goaltending problem. Cassidy must decide whether to start Adin Hill who took Vegas to the Stanley Cup championship last June, or Logan Thompson who is 8-2-1 in his last 11 NHL decisions. Those are two good options, but he also has a third option. He could use both goalies. There’s been speculation that rotating goalies could be a more popular option this season than it has been in past playoffs. The Boston Bruins rotated Jeremy Swayman and Linu ..read more