The Vegas Golden Knights 2023-24 season ended as I anticipated a year ago. The cost of challenging the salary cap with a prime aged roster led to several high value players being shown the door, and the reduction in chemistry and talent, led to an early playoff exit, while a large number of injuries during the year led the former Pacific Division champions to enter the postseason as a wild card for the first time in franchise history. Vegas did most of their prep work for the 2024-25 season at the 2024 trade deadline with the acquisitions of Tomas Hertl and Noah Hanifin, but they also made several notable additions after their postseason exit that bolstered their roster for another attempt at a championship run.

               Vegas surprised a handful of people, including myself with a pair of goaltender-based trades at this year’s draft. They opened day two in the Las Vegas sphere by trading much beloved goaltender Logan Thompson to the Washington Capitals in exchange for 2024 and 2025 3^rd round selections. This roster spot was immediately filled by a second trade with the New Jersey Devils that sent Paul Cotter and a 2025 3^rd round pick to the east coast in exchange for Alexander Holtz and Akira Schmid. Holtz, a former top 10 pick for the Devils, has been unable to escape a bottom six role through this point in his career, and furthermore been unable to tap into the offensive success that he found with both Djurgardens IF of the SHL and Utica of the AHL. The Golden Knights are betting that more minutes, and Bruce Cassidy’s system can unlock Holtz’s potential. Schmid has had a very limited sample size at the NHL level having only played in 43 games and has had both impressive highs and discouraging lows. The 2022-23 season saw him post a +7.1 GSAA as the presumptive savior of the Devils toward the end of the season, where the 2023-24 season saw him at a -3.8 GSAA and end up further down the bench before this late June trade. In Vegas’ defensive system Schmid could end up becoming a high-end back-up goalie and get his career back on track to what the Devils expected of him following their 2023 playoff exit.

               In free agency, the Golden Knights were not particularly active once again due to their salary cap situation when no one is eligible for LTIR. Victor Olofsson and Ilya Samsonov stand out as their biggest acquisitions. Olofsson is one of the more interesting players in the league and seeing him join a team besides the Sabres will be an intriguing storyline to watch. Over his five full seasons in Buffalo, Olofsson has carved himself out as a bizarre power-play specialist with an unimpressive 200-foot game. A three-time 20+ goal scorer, Olofsson can bring depth scoring to the Golden Knights; however, despite his offensive upside, Olofsson has never finished a single season with a WAR (Wins above replacement) above 1.0, which is a concerning statistic for a player who can add so much value on the scoreboard. Samsonov is an equally intriguing addition. Over the past three seasons, split between Washington and Toronto, Samsonov has displayed both elite and replacement level impact between the pipes. At his best, he posted a +17.4 GSAA for the Maple Leafs in 2022-23, and was a major contributor to their regular season success and their first postseason series win in over a decade. At his worst (last season) he posted a -14.9 GSAA and was one of the primary reasons for the Boston Bruins having home ice advantage in first round of the playoffs. Behind the Golden Knights defense, like Schmid, the expectation would be for Samsonov to find the middle ground, hopefully closer to his best work.

               The Vegas Golden Knights only had four selections in this year’s draft, but for the first time that I can remember since their inaugural season, made the most of them. In the first round, they selected the often-maligned Trevor Connelly. I’m not going to go too in-depth on his off-ice concerns, for further reading on Connelly’s whole story, Jillian Wagner at Knights on Ice did a great summary of the whole story here. What I will say about Connelly, is that he scored 78 points in 52 games for the Tri-City Storm of the USHL last season and is one of the most talented offensive players of the 2024 NHL draft class. Additionally, as our lead Hockey East analyst, I will be monitoring Connelly’s play and media availability closely this season as he plays at Providence College. In the third round, the Golden Knights might have found their goalie of the future in SKA St. Petersburg’s Pavel Moysevich. In 13 KHL games during his D+1 season, the 6’5” netminder posted a 94.2% save. Assuming Moysevich continues this developmental trajectory as his volume increases in the KHL, he could be a tremendous asset to the Golden Knights in 3-4 years’ time (or sooner depending on several things involving development and player contracts with foreign leagues).         

               Overall, this was a great offseason for the Vegas Golden Knights, and for the first time in the decade, one where they seemed focused on the future at least as much as they were focused on the present. Their current draft grade is a B, but this could swing either up or down a whole letter depending on how all of their high-risk, high-reward gambles pay off.