In a(nother) season filled with injuries, the Vegas Golden Knights have once again been forced to lean on their depth. Of the 19 players to dress in Tuesday’s 3-2 win over the New York Islanders, seven were not in the opening night lineup this season (although Adin Hill was back!)
This type of turmoil is obviously less than ideal. But with points in each of their past five games — including wins in four of them — and the return of the club’s No. 1 goalie, there is reason for optimism around the team even amidst these circumstances. While no individual call up has necessarily blown the team’s brass away in seizing their opportunity, this young group has offered steady production and has kept the team afloat in an increasingly-competitive Pacific Division playoff race.
One other fun wrinkle in watching young players take their first steps at the NHL level are first career goals. In fact, we are just past the halfway point in the 2023-24 season and already four Golden Knights have lived out the dream of their first NHL goal. With Sheldon Rempal becoming the latest Golden Knight to light his first lamp, let’s take a closer look at the four guys who have hit a pretty major career milestone this season.
Brendan Brisson
First goal: vs. Pittsburgh Penguins, Jan. 20, 2024
Any player’s first goal promises to be a special and memorable, but Brendan Brisson’s happened to make for a surreal, full-circle moment. In potting the game winner in a 3-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins, the 29th overall pick of the 2020 NHL Entry Draft scored while childhood hero Sidney Crosby was on the ice.
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Now, Crosby is one of the greatest players of his generation, so there are plenty of young players who would cite the 36-year-old as a childhood hero. Brisson, however, is probably the only one that can stake a claim to Crosby being his former babysitter. Thanks to his dad, NHL super-agent Pat Brisson, Brenden Brisson had the rather unique experience of being cared for at times by Crosby, his dad’s client, thus making the circumstances around his first goal that much cooler.
Kaedan Korczak
First goal: vs. Dallas Stars, Oct. 17, 2023
Kaedan Korczak had already seen sparse action across two seasons coming into this one, with no goals and two assists in 11 games. So you can understand that the 22-year-old defenseman had little interest in carrying that monkey on his back deep into the 2023-24 campaign. To avoid any further delays, he got off the schneid against the Dallas Stars in what was just his second game of the season.
Korczak was instrumental in what was the Golden Knights’ fourth-straight win to open the season, evening things up at 1-1 with a second period goal and recording the primary assist on William Karlsson’s game-tying marker with less than three minutes remaining in regulation. Not only did the early season tilt with the Stars bring his first NHL goal, but also his first multi-point game as he also had an assist.
Brayden Pachal
First goal: vs. San Jose Sharks, Oct. 12, 2023
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On Oct. 10, Brayden Pachal skated as part of an opening-night lineup in the NHL for the first time in his career. Two days later, he recorded his first career goal.
The significance of the season’s first two games certainly isn’t lost on Pachal, who faced a bumpy road along the way to the league. The 24-year-old defenseman went undrafted and has spent nearly 200 games in the AHL, including a brief stint in the ECHL. The one-footed, double-pump celebration upon scoring the goal showed the full validation of all his hard work to get to this point.
Sheldon Rempal
First goal: vs. New York Islanders, Jan. 23, 2024
Rempal’s first career NHL goal came more than five years after his first game. The undrafted forward has played in 14 games, spread across five seasons and four different teams. He also has more than 300 AHL games under his belt. At 28, he was actually the oldest of the three Golden Knights goal scorers in the 3-2 win over the Islanders.
Given the circumstances and the journey Rempal took to get to this point, a junk goal simply wasn’t going to do it. Fittingly, he will always be able to remember streaking down the wing and blasting a shot just inside the left post past Islanders star goaltender Ilya Sorokin.
Ironically, most Golden Knights fans are probably now rooting for fewer of these moments. The more lineup regulars return, the less room there is for players still seeking their first goal. That being said, it remains such an enduring, heartwarming part of the game that having four such moments already this season can be appreciated as silver linings through the gray clouds of the club’s injury woes to date.
