For the last 23 years (13 with The Hockey News) Dobber Hockey has reviewed each team from a fantasy-hockey standpoint and graded them.

The 24th annual review will appear here on Dobber Hockey throughout the summer. This is not a review of the likely performance on the ice or in the standings, but in the realm of fantasy hockey both for the season ahead as well as the foreseeable future. Offensively, will the team perform? Are there plenty of depth options worthy of owning in keeper leagues? What about over the next two or three years? These questions are what we take into consideration when looking at the depth chart and the player potential on that depth chart.

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Gone – Pavel Dorofeyev, Reilly Smith, Keegan Kolesar, Akira Schmid, Colton Sissons, Kaeden Korczak

Incoming – Victor Olofsson, Ville Heinola, Parker Wotherspoon, Dylan Coghlan, Marc Gatcomb, Adam Ginning

Impact of changes

The Vegas Golden Knights led the weak Pacific Division with 95 points but finished middle of the pack (14^th) in goals scored. That offense will take a hit due to the departure of 37-goal winger Dorofeyev. He was traded for multiple draft picks, as GM Brad McCrimmon had no cap space left to sign the Russian forward. Dorofeyev's 72 goals over the last two seasons ranks 15^th in the NHL. He finished 2^nd in the league with 20 power play goals last year.

After short stints with the Colorado Avalanche and Calgary Flames, Victor Olofsson is back in Vegas. He is a mini-Dorofeyev in that his sniping skills can come in handy on the power play. In fact, in 2019-20 he scored 11 power play goals in 54 games with the Sabres. Most likely, he will be relegated to the second power play, as Shea Theodore will hop back onto the top unit to replace Dorofeyev. The departure of Dorofeyev means the underappreciated Ivan Barbashev has a tighter grip on his role as a top six winger. He was 10^th in the NHL in 5v5 points per 60 (2.64).

Vegas was able to recoup a 3^rd round pick (albeit in 2028) for Akira Schmid who posted better numbers than Adin Hill and Carter Hart. At 5v5, Vegas had 25.21 goals against above expected (per MoneyPuck), which was a league-worst, and the second worst team save percentage at 0.890%. Those numbers would look worse if we removed Schmid. Statistically however, there will be positive regression on these poor goaltending stats. Both the poor luck and the injury situation cannot be as bad as last season.

The Pittsburgh Penguins retained half the salary on defenseman Parker Wotherspoon, so he costs Vegas only $500k. Wotherspoon and Jeremy Lauzon will make up the bottom pair on defense, with Dylan Coghlan and Ville Heinola lurking as the seventh defenseman or as a potential call up. Wotherspoon averaged over 20 minutes of ice time for the Penguins, and his 162 hits was 12^th amongst all defensemen.

Ready for Full Time

Braeden Bowman only played 9:12 of one game during the Golden Knights run to the Stanley Cup Finals. He will join Olofsson and Brett Howden as regular middle six wingers. His $875k entry level contract will come in handy as Vegas has $58 million of their cap space tied up in Jack Eichel, Mitch Marner, Mark Stone, Rasmus Andersson, Shea Theodore, and Noah Hanifin. Regarding Bowman, GM Brad McCrimmon said, “He proved he belongs. He’ll be an everyday player with us.”

In order to stay perennially competitive, the fifth oldest team in the NHL (average age 30.0) has constantly traded away picks and prospects for the latest shiny toy. This has left the farm system depleted and resulted in most of the moves made this summer directly related to the scarcity of cap space.

Tanner Laczynski has played under new coach Ryan Craig for the last two seasons with the Henderson Silver Knights, posting 101 points in 103 games. He could be someone the coach trusts when called up from the AHL.

Fantasy Outlook

The Golden Knights took a step back with the departure of Dorofeyev, but when you have elite set up guys like Eichel and Marner, they can make goal scoring easy on the supporting cast. Despite losing Schmid, the goaltending is expected to rebound and the top four on defense remains unchanged.

Overall, this team will continue to compete near the top of the Pacific Division. Barring injury, the usual fantasy stars will continue to produce. Theodore is a bounce back candidate if he can stick on the top power play unit. Tomas Hertl had a down year (0.71 points per game) but should improve as his IPP and shooting percentage were slightly below his usual standard. Mark Stone posted a career best 1.22 points per game, but it was on the back off an elevated 21.5% shooting percentage (5.7% above his career average).

For the first time in eight years, Marner finished below a point per game, though just barely with 80 points in 81 games. This was less to do with the new team, and more to do with his low IPP on the power play. He was simply the 4^th or 5^th last person to touch the puck when those power play goals were scored. That 48.0 PPIPP corrected to 61.5 in the playoffs, where Marner was at 1.32 points per game. His league-leading 29 points in 22 games landed him 4^th in Conn Smythe voting.

The moves this summer were handcuffed by the limited cap space, however it was mainly bottom pairing and bottom six forwards that were interchanged. Look for Vegas to continue their reputation as a playoff lock. With Dorofeyev gone, their 54 power play goals at 5-on-4 (5^th in the league) should come down but their 5v5 PDO (98.31) which was 5^th lowest in in the league, should rise.

Fantasy Grade: A- (Last year: A)

Check out the rest of the Dobber team previews here.