Bill Kostroun / AP
Florida Panthers right wing Evgenii Dadonov (63) during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the New Jersey Devils Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2020, in Newark, N.J.
Thursday, Aug. 5, 2021 | 2 a.m.
The Golden Knights were busy last week, using the cap space gained in the Marc-André Fleury trade to shore up their offense, while also securing Fleury’s replacement.
The biggest addition was Evgenii Dadonov, a winger who scored 81 goals in a three-year span a few years ago. Coupled with the surprise return of Mattias Janmark and earlier offseason trades for Nolan Patrick and Brett Howden, the Golden Knights are poised to have perhaps the deepest forward core in team history.
“I think this is the best top-nine forwards that our organization has had,” general manager Kelly McCrimmon said after the moves. “And I think this is the best group of forwards collectively that our team has had.”
But just who are these players? Get to know the newest Golden Knights.
• Evgenii Dadonov: The Russian winger could be the antidote to Vegas’ scoring ills. Despite a down year in Ottawa, in which he scored 13 goals in 55 games—none on the power play—he was a consistent 25-plus-goal scorer the previous three years in Florida. He posted 11 power-play goals two years ago, matched in Golden Knights history only by Erik Haula in 2017-18. Dadonov struggled adjusting to a new system in Ottawa, explaining that being away from his family because of Canada’s COVID-19 restrictions might have played a part in that. He joins a stacked group of wingers in Vegas, where he’ll try to return to his goal-scoring ways and boost a stagnant power play.
• Nolan Patrick: McCrimmon, the former owner and coach of the Western Hockey League’s Brandon Wheat Kings, is taking a chance on his former junior star. Patrick was taken second by the Flyers in Vegas’ inaugural draft (Cody Glass, for whom Patrick was just traded, went four picks later in that draft), but Patrick has struggled in the NHL, including missing the entire 2019-20 season with migraine issues. Vegas will hope a change of scenery can restore his potential.
• Laurent Brossoit: The Golden Knights will pay their new backup goalkeeper $2.325 million per year—and McCrimmon has indicated the days of one netminder playing 60 or more games in a season were likely over—so don’t expect Brossoit to be limited to a few games per month behind Robin Lehner. He’ll likely play around a third of the games, a role in which he posted a solid .913 save percentage in three years as Winnipeg’s backup.
• Brett Howden: Howden has never quite put it together in three NHL seasons. His point totals weren’t bad (23 and 19) in his first two years, but he cratered to seven last year without providing a major boost defensively. He’s still 23, however, and Vegas has shown a knack for getting the most out of players who previously struggled elsewhere (see: Karlsson, William and Stephenson, Chandler).
This story appeared in Las Vegas Weekly.
