Golden Knights training camp is officially underway with the players hitting the ice for full practices for the first time tomorrow. After a tumultuous summer, this year’s team enters camp with as many unknowns as there have been since the first season. There are open spots in the lineup at multiple forward positions, a serious battle for starting jobs on the blue line, and plenty of moving pieces on special teams.
Most of the lineup spots and position battles will take months to truly be settled, but training camp will offer an important look at Bruce Cassidy’s first choice option for each. Here are the five questions I’m most looking forward to getting answers to over the next three weeks.
Who gets the first look at 1st line right wing?
For the last five and a half seasons, Jonathan Marchessault has joined Mark Stone to lock down the right-hand side of the Golden Knights’ top six. With Marchessault out of the picture, a spot alongside Jack Eichel and Ivan Barbashev is open and there’s a myriad of candidates to potentially fill it. VGK brought in Alexander Holtz and Victor Olofsson, presumably to give them a look in that spot, but the question marks surrounding each may lead Cassidy to choose a more familiar option.
Mark Stone is clearly the best of the bunch and would make perfect sense as a loaded-up top line, but depth would instantly become an issue. Pavel Dorofeyev could garner a look, but he played more than 80% of his games last season on the left and was healthy scratched in six of the seven playoff games. Is Cassidy ready to go from not trusting Pavel to play against the Stars to handing him a role on the top line? The wild card option may be Nic Roy. Despite VGK brass spending most of the summer touting the depth of their centers, Roy is arguably the most reliable right-winger aside from Stone to fill the role.
I have a feeling a lot of players will get looks in this spot throughout the preseason and into the regular season, but Cassidy has had months to consider who he likes best in that spot, so whoever gets the first chance will be telling, even if others are given opportunities.
What is the plan with the top three defensemen on the power play?
Historically, Cassidy has preferred to use four forwards and one defenseman on each of his power play units. Vegas enters camp with three bonafide power play weapons who all happen to play the same position though. Noah Hanifin, Alex Pietrangelo, and Shea Theodore have all had success running the “quarterback” atop a VGK power play. So, does Cassidy find a way to get two of them on the same unit and if so, which one plays out of position?
It’s likely going to take well into training camp and preseason before we get a true answer for this, and Cassidy will certainly try all options at times in practice and in exhibition games. Opening Night will be a big one on this front though, assuming everyone is healthy.
Is Kaedan Korczak waiting for an injury or can he take someone’s job out of camp?
A comment Kelly McCrimmon made in July has stuck with me through the offseason and now into the start of camp. McCrimmon said Korczak will be a full-time NHL player this season. Because of his age and experience, Korczak is no longer waiver exempt, so it may be as simple as, “we’re not waiving him, so there’s no other place for him than on our roster.” But, there’s also a way to read into that comment as an expectation that Korczak will be in the lineup regularly. If that’s the case, someone has to come out, and that someone is probably Zach Whitecloud.
As the roster whittles down over the next few weeks, it will be interesting to see where the reps go. Whitecloud has spent a ton of time with Nic Hague, so the most likely scenario would be to see those two together most of the time. If there’s experimentation by moving him around though, it may indicate Korczak has made in-roads to take that job. Injuries are likely going to crop up and open space for both Korczak and Whitecloud to start together, but while the team is healthy, one has to sit out, and I’m not 100% sure that has to be the younger of the two.
Between Alex Holtz, Pavel Dorofeyev, Victor Olofsson, and Brendan Brisson, does there have to be an odd-man out and who takes the extra spot if there is?
This may be me projecting too much, but I just can’t fathom a roster in which 25% of Bruce Cassidy’s forwards are considered below-average defensively. Thus, every time I write out a lineup with the available options, I find myself leaving at least one of Holtz, Dorofeyev, Olofsson, or Brisson out (typically it’s not Pavel or Victor either). Maybe Cassidy believes more in the off-the-puck play of the youngsters, or the system can insolate Holtz and/or Olofsson in a way it didn’t with their previous teams. I don’t think there’s much argument that these four are among Vegas’ top 12 forwards, yet I still have a hard time believing they can all play together. Then, if one does come out, who goes in? Jonas Rondbjerg is the most well-versed in Cassidy’s system. However, Zach Aston-Reese has more than 300 NHL games under his belt and the two Tanners (Pearson and Laczynski) both have a claim as well.
Are Tomas Hertl and Mark Stone an inseparable pair?
When the playoffs started and the Mark Stone was back, Cassidy tipped his hand that he believed Tomas Hertl’s best fit in the lineup was centering the captain. The two played the first two games together at even strength and were dynamite down the spine of the power play. An injury to William Karlsson forced some shifts in the lines but Cassidy eventually went back to Hertl and Stone in Game 4. Then, as part of a major shakeup heading into Game 5, the two were separated and would not be reunited. Hertl took Barbashev’s spot on the top line with Eichel and Marchessault and Stone played with Barabshev and Stephenson. Will Cassidy return to what he initially believed and staple Hertl and Stone back together? This one will likely be answered on the very first day of camp.
