A sheet with no cuts and no snow is the canvas a team looks upon before the puck drops to open a season. In the reflection of the glistening surface a team can see itself and wonder what the men in a mirror of ice will accomplish. It’s the great unknown of an NHL season.
Some nine months later this season will culminate in a cluttered and mobbed rink with an executive handing a trophy to a captain for all the world to see. “Will it be us?” is the question every team in the NHL is asking this week.
In Vegas, where Golden Knights GM Kelly McCrimmon has assembled another loaded roster, a positive response to this query has more potential for reality than in most places. While every team can dream, only one wakes up to this reality.
The Golden Knights aren’t built for daydreams. They’re built for banners. And as the 2025–26 season dawns in Vegas, McCrimmon’s mantra – “We’re in the winning business,” rings as true as ever.
When Vegas acquired Mitch Marner in July, eyebrows across the league arched higher than the Strip’s skyline. The move was bold, expensive, and pure McCrimmon.
Marner arrives as one of the league’s most gifted playmakers, joining a center in Jack Eichel who is as powerful as he is cerebral. On paper, it’s a dream mix of acceleration and art. Together, they represent a version of Vegas hockey that’s both threatening and dazzling.
“I’m hoping they’re dangerous every time they’re on the ice,” said Vegas head coach Bruce Cassidy. “They have it in them offensively. I know what they can do defensively. There’s never a worry for me who the matchup is on the other side. And that’s no disrespect to those players but Jack and Mitch have handled those matchups for years in this league.”
Cassidy has experimented with line combinations since taking over the Golden Knights, but he’s never had this kind of chemistry brewing at the top. Around them, Mark Stone, William Karlsson, Pavel Dorofeyev, and Tomas Hertl give Vegas a top nine which glitters.
“Jack and Mitch don’t have to do it all because of the depth of our lineup. I hope they don’t put that pressure on themselves that they have to score every time they go over the boards,” said Cassidy. “This could be the best forward group, Player 1 to 12, that I've ever coached.”
No matter the new arrivals or the shifting pieces, one truth hasn’t changed: the Golden Knights run through Stone.
The captain doesn’t speak in slogans. He lives them. In a locker room filled with stars, Stone’s value lies in habits and an elite hockey IQ. His combination of emotion and smarts has been the franchise’s backbone.
Now the next generation of VGK defenders must take ownership with Alex Pietrangelo officially out for the season.
Shea Theodore, long one of the NHL’s smoothest skaters, is being asked to evolve. He’ll be on the ice to end a game, to kill penalties all while still having his offensive production.
Noah Hanifin will also need to take a bigger bite of hard minutes. Hanifin is big and mobile. Paired with Zach Whitecloud, they will be able to eat minutes and produce offense.
Together, Theodore and Hanifin form a new nucleus — mobile, composed, and capable of playing 25 minutes a night. It won’t look the same without Pietrangelo, but it might still look elite.
The brilliance of McCrimmon’s tenure has always been in the balancing act. He manages to operate in a world with hard caps and harder choices, yet every October the Knights unveil another competitive roster.
This offseason was no exception. Veteran forwards Brandon Saad and Reilly Smith returned on value deals. Hertl, healthy again, anchors the middle six. Karlsson remains one of the NHL’s most complete two-way pivots, while Brett Howden, Colton Sissons and Keegan Kolesar round out a bottom line that can crash, bash, and score on the counter.
Vegas will once again be among the league’s most balanced outfits — a team that can win 5–4 or 2–1, roll four lines, and play any way the opponent wants.
“In terms of lines 1 to 4, there are a lot of positives in terms of the ability to score, the ability to defend, the ability to check, the ability to be physical, to play a rush game, an o-zone game, a forecheck game,” said Cassidy.
There’s no hiding from it now. In Vegas, mediocrity doesn’t sell. The city expects a lot. Ownership expects more. The players crave it.
The challenge is emotional as much as physical. Long playoff runs take a toll. The mental grind of 82 games followed by two months of elimination hockey can flatten the unprepared.
Training camp optimism is a cliché in most markets. In Vegas, it’s measured against reality. The Golden Knights are older, wiser, and maybe a little scarred — but they remain ever dangerous.
The dressing room still hums with belief.
Nine seasons in, novelty has morphed into hunger.
That’s the beauty of this organization’s DNA: it refuses to accept the ordinary. Every transaction, every signing, every camp battle is about keeping the standard high.
And as the lights return to T-Mobile Arena, as the drumline starts to beat and the fans fill the bowl, you can feel it again — that crackle of belief that this could be another special year.
The sheet is still clean. The reflection still glistens. The question still echoes.
Why not us?
In Vegas, that’s not a slogan. It’s a plan.
