There’s no doubt last season was the most frustrating yet for the franchise since joining the NHL back in 2017.
It was their first time not making the NHL playoffs so, the big question is, will they bounce back strong next season, or is their current time in the limelight finished for now?
Injury-Riddled 2021/22 Season
2021/22 was nothing but painful to watch as a Golden Knights supporter. Lengthy player injury after lengthy player injury, and worse it always seemed to be their star players. Their injury list last season included:
- Mark Stone
- Max Pacioretty
- Reilly Smith
- Jack Eichel
- William Karlsson
- Robin Lehner
And that’s just their top players, countless other players spent time on the injury list.
4th Place in the Pacific Division
The Golden Knights tried to do the best they could with what they had last season, but it proved to be too much of a struggle with a 4th place finish in the Pacific division, and in their first year in franchise history they failed to make the playoffs.
The Golden Knights have had a lot of success and their brand has grown massively since entering the league. The more success, the more recognizable you become and that certainly has already happened with these Knights, as many now think of them as one of the top teams in the league after just a few seasons.
Roster Strength and Weakness
Although we don’t believe their current roster is as strong as it once, we do see a lot of strength across all positions on the roster.
They have a lot more star players now but less strength in depth, which is never a bad thing, it just means you are pretty screwed if your star players start coming down with injuries, etc. That is exactly what happened to the Golden Knights last season.
Dressing Room Distractions
This team would have most likely made the postseason last year without all those injuries. Although you could argue that for most teams who didn’t make the playoffs, the difference is the Golden Knights probably would have made a deep run, unlike many others.
Goaltender Robin Lehner seemed to have some issues with head coach Pete DeBoer, which caused to be another distraction within the dressing room last season. Now with DeBoer gone, ex-Boston Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy is at the helm.
Golden Knights Futures Bets and Markets
At the time of writing, the best NHL odds available for the Golden Knights to win the Stanley Cup is +1500 at BetOnline (visit our BetOnline Review).
To be honest these seem like an unfair set of odds right now given the fact goaltender Robin Lehner is sidelined for the majority of the upcoming season needing hip surgery.
Plus, it’s unclear who they are going to try to trade, pick up in free agency to cover Lehner, or if they will even be able to get anyone, as their backup goaltenders are relatively inexperienced.
Low-Scoring Golden Knights
Although we couldn’t find a team total amount of wins for the Golden Knights yet, we did find total regular season points and the line we found was 98.5 at some of the top-rated sportsbooks. The odds were slightly juiced to the under 98.5 at -125 with the over coming in at -105.
Nonetheless, you have to consider that:
- Despite making the playoffs in 4 of their first 5 seasons in the NHL the Golden Knights have only managed over 98.5 points on one occasion and that was their very first season when they hit 109 total regular season points.
- On two occasions they failed to even hit 90 points and on the other two they hit 93 and 94 points.
However, the Golden Knights have an amazing chance of winning their division this season if they stay healthy.
At the time of writing the Golden Knights are set at odds of +225 to win the Pacific division, a bet we like very much and we expect them to fall just shy of 98.5 points, finishing with 95 points this season.
Conclusion
This one is simple. Short and sweet, the Golden Knights should do well because of the weak division they are in, even with a goaltender problem. Come playoff time we can’t see them making it all the way to the Stanley Cup finals, likely losing in the first or second round.
However, they will only stand a chance of making the playoffs if they stay injury-free. A big season awaits Vegas fans!
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