We know that the Vegas Golden Knights will open their first-round series at home, but the rest of the playoff picture is up in the air ahead of the end of the regular season on Friday. While that continues to get sorted out, here’s a look at the system and how some of the club’s prospects have fared in 2022-23.
Before the season, The Hockey Writers’ Eric Cruikshank broke down Vegas’ top prospects. Since that time, 2021 first-round pick Zach Dean was dealt to the St. Louis Blues to land Ivan Barbashev, while minor trades included moving Peter DiLiberatore and Zack Hayes. Other than that, the organization still has a rather thin prospect pool, albeit one that’s made some strides this season.
Brendan Brisson
Assessing Brendan Brisson‘s first full pro season probably depends on your patience for prospect development. On one hand, 15 goals and 34 points in 55 games are decent AHL numbers, and Brisson’s pedigree as a first-round pick (29th in the 20220 NHL Entry Draft) means higher expectations. Comparatively, other centers taken around the same draft slot have fared better – Ridly Greig (No. 28) already earned a shot in the NHL, and Mavrik Bourque (No. 30) posted 19 goals and 44 points for the Texas Stars.
However, his progression throughout the campaign leaves plenty of reason for encouragement. The 21-year-old started slow with just seven goals in his first 37 games with the Henderson Silver Knights. Then, with more ice time and top-six opportunities offered by head coach Manny Viveiros, he took a significant step forward with eight goals in his last 18 games.
Jakub Brabenec
While Brisson still has plenty of time to realize his potential, he may soon be challenged for the title of top prospect by fast-rising Czech teen Jakub Brabenec. Taken by Vegas in the fourth round of the 2021 Draft, the young center produced 18 goals and 60 points in 54 QMJHL games split between Charlottetown Islanders and Sherbrooke Pheonix this season.
Related: Golden Knights’ First-Round Playoff Matchup Coming Into Focus
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Even more impressively, Brabenec enjoyed a standout performance at the 2023 World Junior Championships while helping Czechia to a silver medal. He scored once and tallied six assists, finishing a plus-7. He would do well to use the off-season to add some muscle to his 154-pound frame, but the 19-year-old is making his presence known within the organization.
Lukas Cormier
As a rookie defenseman playing his first pro season on a weak Henderson team, there was every reason to expect an underwhelming output from 21-year-old Lukas Cormier. Instead, the 2020 third-round pick was one of the few bright spots on the Silver Knights, finishing third in team scoring and first among blueliners with 10 goals and 35 points in 62 games.
While the Golden Knights’ front office will surely be pleased with how well Cormier’s offensive game translated to the AHL, questions remain about his defensive abilities. He finished a minus-12 on the season, and while that’s not as bad as some of his teammates (Ivan Morozov finished with a minus-26, the second-worst mark in the league), it signals that he was outmatched at times. However, that can easily be improved with more experience.
Pavel Dorofeyev
As Vegas continues to make a push for the No. 1 seed in the Pacific Division and, perhaps, the top seed in the Western Conference, Pavel Dorofeyev has been making his case to stick with the club. Despite struggling at the AHL level this season (nine goals and 17 points in 32 games after recording 27 goals and 52 points in 63 games a year ago), the 22-year-old has looked like a different player since returning to the big club on March 12 (from ‘Golden Knights rookie could force team into difficult decision,’ Las Vegas Review-Journal, 03/22/2023).
Since beginning his second stint with the Golden Knights this season, Dorofeyev has potted seven goals in 14 games, playing well enough to remain in the lineup even as forwards like Nicolas Roy and Keegan Kolesar have returned from injury. It’s unclear what the playoffs will hold for Dorofeyev, especially considering he hasn’t hit the scoresheet over the past four games and has seen his ice time decrease in each one. Still, expect the pending restricted free agent to enter next season with an inside track on a full-time NHL job.
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Matyas Sapovaliv
Matyas Sapoliv just turned 19 in February, but this season was a testament to his balanced, multi-faceted development, even with nearly another year of hockey ahead before he’s out of his teens. The big Czech center had a strong OHL debut campaign with the Saginaw Spirit in 2021-22 but built upon that in 2022-23 with 27 goals in 61 games and more focus on his two-way play (he finished a plus-8 this season compared to minus-18 a year ago).
Sapovaliv demonstrated a penchant for elevating his performance in the biggest moments. His second World Juniors appearance produced a team-leading seven assists in as many games and a plus-9 mark. Meanwhile, he’s also stood out as one of the OHL’s hottest playoff performers, leading Saginaw to a seven-game first-round triumph over the Flint Firebirds with seven goals and 15 assists, including the Game 7-winning goal.
Golden Knights’ Goaltending Prospects
Given that Vegas’ goaltending situation has been in flux and the success (when healthy, that is) of homegrown Logan Thompson, it makes sense that fans might want to see what netminding prospects could be on their way. On that front, there’s good news and bad.
The good news has come from the performance of 24-year-old Czech backstop Jiří Patera, who offered stability over 30 games in the Henderson net this season and dazzled across two emergency NHL starts (a 2.50 goals-against average and a .929 save percentage). There’s also plenty of intrigue in Carl Lindbom, who starred in the second tier of the Swedish Hockey League this season (1.86 GAA, .930 SV%) while posting impressive numbers (2.64 GAA, .914 SV%) representing Sweden at the World Juniors.
Less encouraging has been the play of recently-signed Jesper Vikman (3.29 GAA and .903 SV% in the regular season for the WHL’s Vancouver Giants, with a 5.84 GAA and .881 SV% in the playoffs) and 2019 fifth-round pick Isaiah Saville (3.36 GAA and a .900 SV% with Henderson).
The consensus is that Vegas has sacrificed much of its prospect pipeline to build expensive, starry, veteran-laden rosters. However, while lacking the deep prospect pools of some other clubs, the Golden Knights have a reason for optimism throughout the system, and that’s without mentioning Ben Hemmerling, Abram Wiebe, and Sakari Manninen.
