Golden Knights counting on Dadonov to awaken dormant power play

By Justin Emerson

Friday, July 30, 2021 | 2 a.m.

It was painfully clear to anyone who watched a Golden Knights game this season, but especially in the playoffs: The power play needed some work.

That’s why Evgenii Dadonov is on his way to Vegas.

The Golden Knights acquired the winger moments before free agency opened earlier this week, addressing their most obvious need as a goal-scorer and a force on the power play. He had a down year with the Senators last year, but if he bounces back the way Vegas hopes, he could be a major threat to a lethal offense.

“He was a player that we identified as a priority,” general manager Kelly McCrimmon said. “This is a player that makes his living in the hard ice. He is very competitive, he’s an engine on a line. We’ve had really good coverage of this player for some time, hold him in high regard.”

The Golden Knights are taking a bet that the 32-year-old winger’s most recent season was more of a blip and less of a precipitous drop. In three seasons with the Panthers from 2017-20, Dadonov scored 81 goals, including 25 power-play goals and a 28-goal, 70-point campaign in 2018-19. He had 11 power-play goals two years ago, a total matched in Vegas history by only Erik Haula in 2017-18.

He signed a three-year deal with Ottawa last offseason and turned in a disappointing season, with 13 goals and just one power-play point in 55 games. The Golden Knights took a chance to buy low on a former borderline elite scorer, sending a third-round pick and defenseman Nick Holden the other way. Dadonov has two years remaining on his $5 million per year contract.

The reasons for the move are obvious. Vegas’ power play struggled in the regular season, ranking 22nd in the league at 18.3%. It was worse in the playoffs, as its 9.3% success rate was the worst by any third-round team in more than 30 years. The Golden Knights went 0-for-15 in the semifinal round against Montreal.

Even though the Golden Knights ranked third in the league with 3.39 goals per game, the need for another scoring threat was obvious. Enter Dadonov, who was among the best pure scorers on the market.

“I wasn’t expecting it. The Ottawa general manager called me and said, ‘So we traded you.’ My first reaction was 'Which team?' and he told me it was Vegas,” Dadonov said. “I’m very excited actually. I think it’s one of the best teams in the NHL right now.”

There are reasons for the drop in the production from Florida to Ottawa. In Florida he spent more time on the wing of star center Aleksander Barkov than off it, while in Ottawa his most common running mate was Colin White, who is not Barkov's caliber. The Panthers’ power play ranked sixth in the league in the three years he was there, in part because of him, but also because it had players like Barkov, Jonathan Huberdeau and Keith Yandle. Dadonov didn’t have that level of support with the Senators, whose power play ranked sixth from the bottom.

The nature of being in Ottawa was tough for him, too. Florida was the only NHL organization he’d ever known, from when he spent three years there earlier in his career to his second go-round after a return from Russia in 2017. He struggled to adjust to Ottawa and conceded the Canadian border restrictions because of COVID made life off the ice difficult as well.

“I’m not going to give any excuses about my game, but of course that was a tough time without the family,” Dadonov said. “I just had to go from my apartment to the rink, just like two places I went. The year was hard. It was hard for everybody.”

Though the goal-per-game numbers dropped a little over the years, other parts of his game have dropped a lot. Dadonov’s best season came in 2017-18 when he had 28 goals and was ranked 10th in the league with 19 Goals Above Replacement, according to advanced stats site Evolving Hockey.

Since then he’s been on a downward path, coming in at 11.9 GAR the following year, 5.1 the next and 1.6 last season, a total that would have placed him 13th on the Golden Knights between Zach Whitecloud and Keegan Kolesar.

Maybe you can toss out last year as a product of a poor team in Ottawa and never feeling comfortable in his new surroundings. He’ll have better teammates in Vegas — the thought of a third line with him and Alex Tuch as wingers is tantalizing — and he said he’s already looking at schools to get his family settled.

The Golden Knights are hoping the move inspires a resurgence. Vegas didn’t have much cap space even after the Marc-Andre Fleury trade and chose to make Dadonov its big offseason splash.

It’s a chance worth taking. Dadonov immediately becomes one of the best shooters on the Golden Knights, and returning to form would push the Golden Knights’ power play out of the depths of the league.

Forward Reilly Smith said during the semifinal round that the power play was costing Vegas the series. The Golden Knights didn’t spend long into the offseason knowing exactly where they needed to improve. With Dadonov and his scoring touch in the mix, the Golden Knights are confident the power play won’t cost them another series.