Who Will Lead The Golden Knights In Goals This Season?

For some teams, this is an easy question.
If you said today, July 18, that Alexander Ovechkin was going to lead the Washington Capitals in goal scoring this season, it would be hard to not believe you.
Ditto for John Tavares with the New York Islanders. Or Vladimir Tarasenko in St. Louis.
Patrik Laine in Winnipeg, Patrick Kane in Chicago or Max Pacioretty with Montreal.
For the Golden Knights, however, who'll lead the team in goal scoring during its inaugural season is a legitimate question.
Below, we provide arguments of why a few of Vegas' players have the chance to lead the team in goals.
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Jonathan Marchessault
If we're going to start this argument, we may as well begin with the Golden Knight who scored the most goals last season.
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Marchessault, a 5-foot-9, undrafted, 26-year-old who had never scored more than seven goals in a season, exploded for 30 with the Florida Panthers last season.
Factoring in that Marchessault is in a contract year (he's an unrestricted free agent after the season), he could be poised to put up gaudy numbers in 2017-18.

James Neal
Scoring 23 times last season, James Neal reached the 20-goal mark for the 10th straight year.
Included in this run is a 31-goal season for Nashville 2015-16, and a 40-goal season with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2011-12.
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Neal's 238 career goals are by far more than any player on the Golden Knights' roster.
And like Marchessault, Neal is also playing in a contract year.

Reilly Smith
Under contract for the next five seasons, the Golden Knights don't have any player locked up for as long as Reilly Smith.
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While Smith's 15 goals last season were a dip from the 25 he scored the year before, remember this:
Smith scored his career-high 25 goals in 2015-16 playing under Gerard Gallant with the Florida Panthers. And reunited with his former coach in Vegas, Smith could rekindle some of his 2015-16 magic.
Smith, 26, has twice reached 20 goals in a season, having previously accomplished the feat with the Boston Bruins in 2013-14.

Other Possibilities
David Perron: Has reached 20 goals in a season three times in his career, but not since 2013-14. But with 18 last season for the St. Louis Blues, Perron has proven that he can still score.
Vadim Shipachyov: More of a playmaker than a goal scorer, Shipachyov is an overwhelming favorite to lead the Golden Knights in assists this season, having led Russia's KHL in helpers in 2016-17. Goals is an entirely different question.
Although coming off a career-best 26 goals in Russia last season, Shipachyov has proven he can finish.
How much he replicates last season's goal scoring and how much this goal scoring can translate to the NHL, however, remains to be seen.