Are the Vegas Golden Knights the best team in the NHL?

Is VGK the top team in the National Hockey League through the second week of the season? We’ll talk about it next right here on Locked on Golden Knights. Your Locked On Golden Knights, your daily podcast on the Vegas Golden Knights, part of the Locked On Network, your team every day. Well, hi again everyone from Las Vegas. Tony Kredasco and Chris Golick. We appreciate you making us your first listen every day. Find us wherever you get your podcast. I’m a longtime sports cer, a marketing consultant, and the host of the Believe in Vegas podcast. And Chris is the owner of Silver State Cards and Sports, the host of the new hockey news collectible show starring the one and only Chris Collic. Now, coming up on today’s show, we’ll also talk about Pavle Dorivv and some of the metrics uh that show his greatness early in the season. And also, we’ll talk about uh the defense for VK and how they’re playing of late uh minus half of the team, half of their main stays from a season ago. Uh you can now catch us every day on the Silver State Sports and Entertainment Network. Tune in 1:00 Monday through Friday, SSEN, and you could find it on YouTube TV or on Cox Cable channel 77. We are statewide, folks. And today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Go to fanduel.com. So, Chris, uh, the question from the top is, is VK the top team in the National Hockey League? I know it’s kind of early, of course, a short sample size as they say in the game. And uh VGK and Colorado, which lost to Utah in overtime last night, are the only two teams currently without a regulation loss. Each of the two teams 50 and two. But the way that the Golden Knights have played early on, it could be hard to leave the Golden Knights out of the top spot in the power rankings. I know CBS Sports has the Golden Knights ranked at the very top. Yeah. So CBS Sports, uh, Scott Erskine, nice article, kind of a little bit of commentary about each team and where they sit. Erskine ranks them one, two, three. Looks like it goes VK, Colorado, Winnipeg, uh, Detroit, and Carolina round out the top five. Um, money puck, which is strictly analytical as far as a a ton of metrics. We’ll just keep it nice and simple right there. Uh, Money Puck has the top five and this is as of today. This is this is live as of Wednesday the 22nd at midnight Eastern. Colorado, Carolina, Vegas just beat and the Golden Knights top three stars and Oilers rounding out the top five right there. And we’re splitting hairs a little bit trying to argue, you know, se, you know, six, seven, eight games into the season here. But for me, you look at what VGK has done, especially in that Carolina game. It’s not like Carolina was just on a travel day. It’s not like it was the first game of the road trip or the last game of the road trip. They’re in the midst of a successful road trip and the Golden Knights after losing Aiden Hill early without Mark Stone, without Noah Hannifan, without Brett Houden handled him pretty well. It was it was a close game. It was in the balance and the Barbershv late goal obviously set him ahead a little bit as Tony love to bring that up. Get him going early. Um, but long story short, is VK the best team in the NHL so far? And why not? Why not? I I have to wonder if this um Golden Knights offense or when when the offense slows down, averaging four goals per victory uh this young season. So, they’re scoring goals and of course they’re getting a lot of shots on goal as well. Um, couple things. One, the shooters are ahead of the goalending. That’s not just a VK thing. that’s traditional in the NHL and the goalies will catch up and scoring will drop for all the teams. Um but again, you look at what Dorian is doing, you look at what Mark Stone was doing, unfortunate injury, he’ll be out for at least another, you know, five, six weeks at this point. Um you look at what Jack Eel is doing, Mitch Marner, I think, is on four or five multi-point games in a row. It it’s pretty spectacular what’s happening right now with all this scoring. And will it slow down? Probably at some point, sure. But it’s going to slow down more. Not because the Golden Knights are, you know, playing bad or anything like that. Just kind of a traditional es and flows. And again, another Cassidy team out to a hot start. And, you know, come December, January, we’ll we’ll see what’s happening, especially as these injuries are mounting up. And that’s the that’s the that’s the the the major concern right now. The Golden Knights are Eel or Maria injury away from uh you know, putting a lot of salt on a on a fun start to the show. Did VGK bring up anyone to take the spot of Mark Stone while you were at the pumpkin patch yesterday? Well, you’re at the pumpkin patch nice and early. Gil Gilgree Orchard. A lot of fun, especially go there if you can go there during the week instead of over the weekend. You know what the crazy thing I’ve never been there, but it’s it’s lovely. I see a lot. Oh, yeah. We had a nice time. We had a nice time. But no no roster call-ups as of yet. We’re waiting to see because Markstone is on IR. So VK does have a roster spot. You have to assume something will happen for the road trip. they’ll need an insurance policy. Um, and then with the goalending, of course, I mean, unless Aiden Hill, you know, miraculous recovery and this injury is absolutely nothing. Um, you know, you expect to see Carl Lindbomb called up and him to likely uh get a look uh during this roadie. Uh, so now we’ll see VGK, they’ll be tested, I think, uh, for the first time this season playing the three games. They’ll be tested against Carolina theoretically, Tony. Well, on on the East Coast, they’ll play three games, but is Carolina a good team? And remember in the playoffs what they looked like a smallish team. Remember remember remember all those like uh a lot of folks u just were saying they were just too small to win to win the cup and of course we saw over the course of a series what Florida did. But I’m just wondering if they are that good. That’s it. That’s the best team they’ve played so so far. So that’s a litmus test right there. I mean, you have the opinion power ranking having them not far behind VGK. You have the analytical power ranking from from Money Pluck having them ahead of the Golden Knights. So, Carolina is going to be a very very good team. Uh definitely were not at their best when they played the Golden Knights and the Golden Knights were not at their best either. I mean, the result was good for the Golden Knights. Um but I’m with you like Carolina much like Toronto. Now, Carolina makes it out of the first and second round. That’s the difference. But there’s still something to prove. Can they perform in the conference final? They have no problem getting to the conference final, but they’ve been uh, you know, handled, I guess putting it very mildly, their last few trips to the conference final here. So, Carol is a good regular season team. I’ll put the Dallas Stars in that same conversation. A really good regular season team. Um, when the chips are down and you have to win to advance or win to get to a cup or win a Stanley Cup, uh, you know, much like the Winnipeg Jets. We can keep going on and on here for a little bit. These are great regular season teams that just have significant breakdowns. And the Golden Knights have made it to the promised land in the last few seasons. And if things keep going well, there’s a very good chance uh you will see VK and no less than the conference final. Hopefully they budgeted for that. I’m curious now too, the health of this team starting to catch up and it’s very early. How long how long does Brandon Sad stay on the top line and who would replace him at this juncture? And can we see Mitchie Mner? It’s uh Marner Wednesday. Can we see Mner back on the top line? Everything is in play right now, but the Gold Knights are scoring goals and performing having him on two separate lines right now. And no one’s happier than Pav Dorf, who’s going to get to hang out with Mitch Mner a little bit and is, you know, hopefully 60 65 assists throughout the season. Um Brandon Sod, listen, um I’m not sold on him being a great player at this stage of the game. I wasn’t sold on the signing of him as well, but with the situation with everything happening, Brandon Sod is the best player to fit the role of the top line in the absence of if Mitch Martyr is not going to be up there. Of course, with Mark Stone’s injury, Brandon Sad, I don’t have his numbers up here, but longtime NHL journeyman, multi-stanley Cup winner, he knows what it takes to perform in this circumstance, and you’re going to get some juice when you’re on a line with Jack Eel. I think of the the the hockey stat card, the report card that comes out every after every game. I think the I think it was Eel Barbesev Sad one, two, and three. So Sad had an effective game. It’s hard not to have an effective game with Jack on your as your center. But still, you have to get in there. You have to fill the role. And Sad’s going to score a few important goals as long as he does remain on that top line. So back to the major question and the question that we started off with. Is VK the best team in the National Hockey League through the first couple of weeks? And the way that they’re playing right now, it’s hard to debate. And in all those victories, they’re scoring goals. And the top forwards, we’ll talk about defense later, but the forwards in the top six especially, or you can even go top nine, are putting a lot of pucks on net for sure. I mean, like you said, defense, we’ll talk more later, but the defense has been better than average. very very good considering the circumstances. Uh the big boys who are you know presumed to lead this team are leading this team. Uh Doraf going to become Daenerv uh definitely doing a great job. The intern is at it today. Yeah. So yeah, long story short, Golden Knights I am with you. They do deserve to be tops of the power ranks right now through the first seven games and the team could only get better unless injuries continue to mess with them. Coming up next, the latest edge advanced stats tell us what we’re seeing and what we saw all of last season and the early part of this campaign. Pablo Dorf could become a superstar in the making. We examine some of his metrics next and where Dor Dorf currently ranks amongst the players in the NHL. We’ll do that next right here on Lockdown Golden Knights. The NFL season is now what seven weeks into the season about 40% huh? 40% completed and there are still a lot of football games to be played. And that’s why you need to check out FanDuel because right now new customers can bet just $5. And in return, if that bet wins, you’ll receive $300 in bonus bets that you can use across the application. Again, pick a bet, put down $5. If it hits, you’ll unlock $300. And the best part about FanDuel is that you get paid immediately after the score goes final. That’s what I like about it. And I love all of the FanDuel props. You can build the parlays, same game parlays, and you can try the player props and of course bet in game. Uh the W the W I should say the NBA last night tipped off and I was watching in-game and uh but it went the wrong way on several occasions, but it does make watching football and all sports even more exciting. You’ve got a little juice on the game. So, what are you waiting for? Visit fanuel.com today. Download the FanDuel app and get things started. And we are also brought to you today by Rouette. That’s right. Let’s be real. Making excuses a lot of the times is not going to get things done. Won’t solve anything. We’ve heard it before. Well, it’s just stress. I’m tired. Or it happens to everyone sometimes. But when it comes to performance, sometimes your body just needs a little extra support. And that’s where Rouette comes in. Uh Rouette offers fast acting doctor prescribed treatments for ED. And it’s designed to help you stop making excuses and start making some moves. Rouette makes you uh get things started. That’s right. And you could just connect with the board certified doctors that they have 100% online. No awkward waiting rooms. No inperson appointments. And if prescribed, your treatment ships discreetly straight to your door. So visit Rouette today. It’s rugg rug gi.comlockdown NHL to get 15% off your first order. ruggie ei.com/lockdown NHL. And don’t forget, use our code lockdown NHL. So they know that we sent you again, Rugette. Stop making excuses and start making moves. What were you grumbling about there? You okay? Everything good? We heard you grumbling. Oh, maybe that was your stomach. It It could have been that the other day, we’re ready to start the show and Goll, I need to have like a banana or something. You just I’ve done that a couple times. Absolutely. The stomach was just growling. We appreciate everyone making us your first listen every day. Find us wherever you get your podcasts. Please subscribe to our Lockdown Golden Nights YouTube channel. And don’t forget Friday’s WTF day round here. So, uh, let’s talk about Pavle Durv. He’s taken another step forward and, uh, comes off of a 35 goal season a year ago and through seven games, he has seven goals already. And you get the feeling that he’s just scratching the surface. He looks so confident. And there was a stat that we dug up on the edge statistics. Since January the 1st, he’s tied for second in regular season goals currently with 29. He’s had 29 since January the 1st. And he ain’t done yet, folks. Not he’s just getting started for real. The development of Doraf is just awesome. And again, Golden Knights get dragged when it comes to a lot of things as far as um development and drafting and training everybody. Well, let’s talk about I love just bringing this up. Uh he was a round three pick in the 2019 NHL entry draft, number 79 overall. But still, what gets me here is his 2018 2019 KHL campaign. 23 games, one goal, one assist, two points. Good job, Doria. He played with uh I’m not sure this is lower than the KHL, but R US/MHL. I’m assuming that’s maybe a little lower in the KHL in 2018 2019. 31 points in 19 games. Okay, cool. KHL, he plays 48 games in 2019 20 with the Oh boy. Magna Gorsuch Malberg. I have no idea what’s which one is the city or the name. He had seven points. He had seven points. I want to know what the scouting saw in Dorafia to get this guy into North America to get him in Henderson. Get him at the Orleans Arena. That’s where he developed his game at the Orleans Arena. Not not too many games in in in Henderson. Um and and where this came from. So magnificent job. This feels like um like one of the scouts who, you know, is just kind of I got a guy. I got a hunch about this guy. I don’t have a lot of stats here. I don’t have a lot to go off of, but you know, just just just do me this one. Get get this guy. Sure enough, whoever can put their name behind Doraf, uh, better be get a nice little Christmas bonus. Yeah, that’s an interesting point. And maybe like some of the other players, they scouted him 157 times, you know, in the K. He didn’t play 157 games in the KHL. He played like 78. All right. So maybe uh maybe in scrimmages and such. So, some of the NHL’s edge metrics, uh, ranks fourth in the hardest shot for forwards, clocked over 93 miles per hour for 194 lb tall dude. That’s pretty solid. Keep going. And they say that he’s amongst the leaders. Four long range shots on goal and that puts him in the 96 percentile I saw in this article. and he leads the league in goals from the right side as we know especially with the prowess there on the power play. Thank you Mark Stone just across the crease. No one’s there defensively. Don’t understand that. But four power play goals we know. And that’s a sweet spot, right? But we’ve also seen his versatility because after teams overplayed him on the right side, he moves to the left and he’s equally as effective. He’s very versatile. How about goals from the right side here? Leads the league in snapshots, five uh goals from the right side, four. I mean, these NHL edge stats are very interesting to kind of go. That’s good. Go ahead. I didn’t hear. I’m sorry. I was I was so focused on on saying Okay. Yeah, I need a banana right now. But point being, you were out of the pumpkin patch. I think that’s good. His brain, his hockey IQ, like sometimes players are smarter than their skill set is. Sometimes players skill set doesn’t match their their brain as far as their hockey ability and hockey IQ and now it’s all coming together. Maybe last season Dorfia was just shooting anything and everything and you know had had you know some very good puck luck. Now this is showing this isn’t puck luck. This isn’t Dorafia just you know getting the right circumstances and just getting lucky. Like I don’t know how else to say this here. Um, you look at his goal in tight the other night against Freddy Anderson pulling off the Peter Forsber, but then you look at him, he had a power play goal from the left circle a couple of games ago. Everyone thought he can only score from the right side. He’s got a great snapshot and coach Cassidy is using him on the offensive side of the puck a ton. If there’s a low zone faceoff, Doria’s line is coming out there. It seems like right now. Uh, I saw a real interesting edge stat, and we hate to get too geeky on you, but this is something that No stinking spreadsheets. Yeah, no stinking spreadsheets. Uh, they’re saying the average shot attempt on a power play, this is so intricate, it comes at a 20 degree angle and Dora Feev is shooting at a 41 degree angle. So he’s like by far leaps and bounds on the power play. He’s shooting at the odd angle there because most of the shots on power play come at just a 20 degree angle. He’s like double that. That’s a crazy stat in Russian or otherwise. No, it’s it’s very interesting. I mean I’m picturing the protractor out there and you know and just charting all this. I mean listen it’s it’s a joy to watch Dorifia becoming who he is. And now we have another roster salary drama. How long is he going to sign? And is there going to be an offer sheet? Is someone else going to off match? And you know, this is going to be next season’s drama. Assuming again, assuming uh Doria doesn’t get locked down. You have to wonder what Mcrimman and Co are thinking right now. I mean, if there’s a path to 8* 8 sign this right right now, that would be magnificent. But I don’t think 8* 8’s even in play. No, that’s not in play. He’s about 10 11 maybe 12. I think maybe he might take nine just to do it. No, you don’t think so? No. No. Uh, no. I I don’t think so. I think he’s at least 910 minimum. 112 on the max side. He can get the money. And he ranks highly among forwards in offensive zone time. and BK against the Hurricanes. We saw it pay off because he did have the puck a lot in the offensive zone. Pay dividends. Scores his seventh goal of the season. Coming up next, we are going to be talking about the makeshift VGK defense. They’ve done pretty well here, especially the past few games. We’ll talk about it next right here on Lockdown Golden Knights. Most people, you know, cannot name all their financial accounts or even what they’re worth, whether it’s the 401k or 401ks, the properties or investments, all of that. And when you don’t have the full picture, you can end up leaving money on the table. That’s why there’s Monarch Money. And it’s an all-in-one personal financial tool. It helps you out and it brings all of your entire financial life together. And it does it in one clean, easy to use interface. and that can be found on your laptop or your phone. No stinking spreadsheets, as we’ve said repeatedly here. And Monarch’s built for the busy people, uh, people that have busy lives that are out at the pumpkin patch or whatever. And if you put off organizing your finances, then Monarch is definitely for you. It does all the heavy lifting for you. You can link all of your accounts in just a matter of minutes. You could see all the data, all the visuals, get smart categorization of your spending, and you could finally feel in control of all your money without ever touching a spreadsheet. So, don’t let financial opportunity slip through the cracks. Do it today. Use the promo code lockdown NHL at monarchmoney.com. And you just do this in your browser. You’ll receive half off of your first year. That’s 50% off of your first year at monarchmoney.com. and use the promo code lockdown NHL. Welcome back, Tony Cordasco and Peter Pumpkin reporting from Las Vegas. Appreciate the way that you said I thought that it was like some sort of uh farm equipment. You said protractor, not protractor like you said protractor. We appreciate you making us your first uh listen, right, every day. We appreciate everyone, especially our every day. Out of control. Okay, so currently you look at the uh pumpkins right here. Whoa, that’s all you got? No, we got a bunch outside. I got a few pumpkins for my background for my sports cards and stuff. But yeah, that’s pretty cool. Uh yeah, I saw you carrying like a big one. Do they weigh them by the pound? Like how do they charge? Yeah, they weigh them on the way out and then they uh you know, you got to wonder how how the scales are and stuff. But yeah, it’s all good. Yeah. And then the Vegas tax, I’m sure. For sure. Okay, so Noah Hannah currently out. Nick K is in Nashville. Alex Petrangelo is on LTI perhaps never playing again. So that is half of the defensive core from a season ago, right? If you look at it that way. So how Chris has the defense kept it together? They have given up just two goals over the past two games against Kell Gary and K Alina. Hannah’s minus one. Only played the first game of the season. That a strange game against the Kings. Drop that game. Drop that game. Who cares about that? Looking at the plus minus ratings of all the defense, uh Braden McNab and Shay Theodore. McNab won uh Theodore plus two. Just stopping right there for a second. They have a more responsible job now. They’re especially without Hannneathan out there. They are now all of a sudden the shutdown line. They’re the shutdown defense. They’re they’re they’re the top pairing right now, which is a much different role for Shay Theodore. and he’s handling it. So, let’s just start right there. And then going to the other defenseman, Jeremy Lazan, as much as we’re dogging him, he’s a plus two right now. Cororsac, young player, rookieish campaign, plus three. Ben Hutton, plus three. Zack Whitecloud, who you and I are both not excited about, who you and I both pull no punch. You know, we we definitely don’t give him any leash. Zack Whitecloud, who got beat twice very badly in the Carolina Hurricanes game. Zack Whitecloud, who I say should not be in the top four. Zack Whitecloud is a plus4 and he’s the highest rated defenseman as far as plus minus ratings. So, it may not look that pretty on the ice sometimes, but the team is winning. They’re not giving up goals and Zack Whitecloud is no small part of that. Zack Whitecloud is doing well from a stats perspective. So, the defense can only get better throughout the season. The goalending is going to catch up. So this is why I do feel going back to our top segment why VGK is the best team in the NHL unbiased you know homework perspective whatever but the defense is only going to get better and someone like Whitecloud is going to grow into his role a little bit more. I’m definitely much more on the okay I trust Zack a lot more than I did coming into the season and all the defense is getting it done right now. I mean Lison should get a little bit better and hopefully he’ll win a fight or two. Yeah, maybe he’ll win a fight. I know he just hits everything in sight. U Noah Hannifan, he’s he missed his sixth game of the season on Monday night. Now it’s crazy. He’s already missed as many games as he’s missed in his previous four seasons. How crazy is that? That’s that. So he played 81 games 2122 80 games even in the 23 24 season where he played for the Flames and for VK and 80 games last season. So he’s already missed six games which ties as many games as he’s missed over the past four seasons. So that’s a crazy stat and it’s questionable right still that Hovan travels for the three-game road swing with the team. You think he’ll be? I think he’s been skating, so I think he will travel. Whether he draws in or not is another story. We’ve seen a lot of card games and and the sign in the beach. We we’ve seen players travel and not draw in before. I think that’s happened with Shay Theodore in the past and other players who are coming back. So, and I mean, listen, I’m if I’m if I’m a player, I’d rather do the South Florida trip versus, you know, going out to the to the Northeast or something like that, you know, come November and December. He’s left already. He’s in Florida. He’s on the beach. Hey, it’s all good. They got to practice today. But yeah, I mean, listen, when Hannneathan comes back, it’s only going to help this team, I believe, and it’s going to help uh spread the minutes out a little bit. Hannneathan, I think, uh was I think he played like like 26 games or 20 or 26 or 24 minutes in some of the preseason games or something ridiculous like that. Hathan projects to be the minutes and Tai ice leader of the defenseman. So again, can only get better and me, you, other shows, other journalists, whatever may have you, all concerned about the defense and the goalending coming in. Those boxes have been checked despite injuries and concerns. So good, very good so far. Well, scoring for defenseman, only Kaden Gorsak has a goal. Slight concern, but when Dory is out of pace for 80 goals, who cares? Yeah. So sooner or later though because they have the offensive firepower in front of them, but s sooner or later that dries up and they have to depend on the defense to score goals. Yep. Legitimate question, right? We appreciate everyone tuning in, especially our everydayers. I got it. Uh thank you so much for tuning in. Of course, we’ll be back again tomorrow and uh make sure that you follow us. I’m Tony Kasco for Chris Collic. See you tomorrow right here on Lockdown Golden Nights.

The Vegas Golden Knights topped CBS’s early power rankings this week. Is VGK the best team in the NHL? Tony and Chris dive in to Pavel Dorofeyev’s advanced EDGE stats. Defense and goaltending were an early-season concern, those concerns have been squashed.

FanDuel
Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Download the FanDuel app now by visiting FanDuel.com and win $300 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins.

Gametime
Today’s episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase.

Monarch
This Episode is brought to you by Monarch. Take control of your finances with Monarch. Use code LOCKEDONNHL at monarch.com for 50% off your first year.

Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms…
🎧 https://link.chtbl.com/LOGoldenKnights?sid=YouTube

Locked On NHL League-Wide: Every Team, Fantasy, Prospects & More
🎧 https://linktr.ee/LockedOnNHL

#VGK #GoldenKnightsHockey #nhlhockeyislife
Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!
Rugiet
Ready to level up your confidence ? Head to https://rugiet.com and use promo code LOCKEDONNHL for 15% off your first order.

Gametime
Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.

Monarch
Take control of your finances with Monarch. Use code LOCKEDONNHL at https://monarch.com/lockedonnhl for 50% off your first year.
FanDuel
Download the FanDuel app now by visiting FanDuel.com and win $300 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins.

FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)

9 comments
Leave a Reply