Typically, championship teams\u00a0are built\u00a0through the Draft. Sure, teams add a few pieces through trades or in Free Agency, but for the most part, they\u2019ll draft and develop their core players. But ever since they entered the league, the Vegas Golden Knights have defied this rule.<\/p>\n
With the exception of\u00a0Jonathan Marchessault, when the Golden Knights won the Stanley Cup in 2023, they did so on the backs of players they traded for\u2013 Jack Eichel, Chandler Stephenson, Mark Stone, and Adin Hill.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Time and time again, the Golden Knights have demonstrated their ability to identify talent and buy low. In 2019, they sent the Washington Capitals a fifth-round pick for Chandler Stephenson. In 2022, they acquired Adin Hill from the San Jose Sharks for a fourth-round pick.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What the Golden Knights haven\u2019t demonstrated, however, is an ability to identify NHL talent in the Draft. They\u2019ve drafted 58 players since 2017, and just six will start next season in the NHL. Only two of those players\u2013 Pavel Dorofeyev and Kaedan Korczak\u2013 will suit up for the Golden Knights. The other four\u2013 Cody Glass, Nick Suzuki, Paul Cotter, and, now, Nic Hague\u2013 have new homes.<\/p>\n
Cotter and Hague were the first two Golden Knights development success stories. Hague, drafted 34th overall in 2017, became\u00a0a very good\u00a0NHL defenseman. He played 364 games with the Golden Knights and helped them win the Stanley Cup in 2023. Now, he\u2019s gone,\u00a0traded to the Nashville Predators<\/a>\u00a0so that he could get his well-deserved raise.<\/p>\n Paul Cotter, drafted 115th overall in 2018, added speed and physicality to the Golden Knights\u2019 bottom six. He didn\u2019t suit up during the 2023 Stanley Cup run, but finished his Golden Knights tenure with 22 goals and 45 points in 138 games.<\/p>\n Last season, Pavel Dorofeyev took a massive step forward, cementing himself as the next development success story. He played all 82 games last season, scoring 35 goals and finishing the year with 52 points. He also contributed to the lethal power play with 13 goals and 17 points. And at just 24, there\u2019s no reason to believe Dorofeyev won\u2019t improve from here.<\/p>\n Dorofeyev, along with newly acquired Mitch Marner, Jack Eichel, and Shea Theodore, helps keep the average age of the Golden Knights\u2019 roster down. But after losing Nic Roy, if they want to once again contend for the Stanley Cup, they need another development success story.<\/p>\n When the Golden Knights gave Kaedan Korczak a four-year, $13 million\u00a0contract extension, they bet on him to be just that. They also bet on him to have a breakout season to the point where a $3.25 million AAV contract would look like a steal.<\/p>\n Read More: Golden Knights Gamble, Give Defenseman Four-Year Extension<\/a><\/p>\n Korczak, drafted 41st overall by the Golden Knights in 2019, looks primed for a breakout. At 6\u20194\u201d, the 24-year-old right-shot defenseman fits right in with the other behemoths on the back-end. He\u2019s fast and can really skate, especially for a man of his size. He\u2019s physical and isn\u2019t afraid to take the body or lay a hit.<\/p>\n In 77 career NHL games, Korczak has a goal and 21 points. He\u2019s a talented puck mover with good vision. He\u2019s also demonstrated an ability to jump into the play without cheating for offense.<\/p>\n As the 7th defenseman, he played just 40 games last season, sometimes going long stretches without drawing into the lineup.\u00a0This year, in Alex Pietrangelo\u2019s absence<\/a>, the Golden Knights plan to significantly increase Korczak\u2019s workload\u2013\u00a0general manager Kelly McCrimmon\u00a0even came out and said it.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the obvious candidate for more responsibility is Kaedan Korczak,\u201d McCrimmon said during a press conference on July 1st. \u201cHe\u2019s going to be an every-night player; we are\u00a0really\u00a0confident that he can be.\u201d<\/p>\n Those words, emphasized by the new contract, will mean nothing if Korczak doesn\u2019t seize this opportunity. McCrimmon said that, too.<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes, you need that opportunity to take a step,\u201d said McCrimmon. \u201cYou have to be ready for it when the opportunity comes, or you don\u2019t get to keep it.\u201d<\/p>\n Well, this is it: Korczak\u2019s opportunity has arrived. And no one wants him to make the most of it more than the Golden Knights.<\/p>\n FOR MORE GOLDEN KNIGHTS NEWS AND UP-TO-DATE COVERAGE, VISIT\u00a0VEGAS HOCKEY NOW<\/a>\u00a0AND LIKE OUR\u00a0FACEBOOK PAGE<\/a>.<\/p>\n FOLLOW US ON\u00a0\ud835\udd4f:<\/p>\n @VegasHockeyNow<\/a>
@h_kirk6<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Typically, championship teams\u00a0are built\u00a0through the Draft. Sure, teams add a few pieces through trades or in Free Agency,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110256,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5129],"tags":[58,149,21750,17976,5317,5,3701,1596,4,2880,74,39,5316],"class_list":{"0":"post-122386","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-vegas-golden-knights","8":"tag-featured","9":"tag-golden-knights","10":"tag-golden-knights-analysis","11":"tag-golden-knights-signings","12":"tag-goldenknights","13":"tag-hockey","14":"tag-kaedan-korczak","15":"tag-kelly-mccrimmon","16":"tag-nhl","17":"tag-pavel-dorofeyev","18":"tag-vegas","19":"tag-vegas-golden-knights","20":"tag-vegasgoldenknights"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/114841532815462958","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}