Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Shea Theodore (27) celebrates with defenseman Brayden McNabb (3) after Theodore’s goal against the Chicago Blackhawks during the third period of an NHL hockey game at T-Mobile Arena Friday, Oct. 27, 2023.
Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024 | 2 a.m.
The Vegas Golden Knights season is again being partially defined by managing injuries to key players.
Those injuries haven’t yet piled up like the 500-plus man-games that were lost in the 2021-22 season when Vegas missed the playoffs for the only time in franchise history, but the Golden Knights enter tonight’s game at the Colorado Avalanche with the fourth-most man-games lost due to injury in the NHL at 157. The game is at 7 p.m. on TNT.
Only the San Jose Sharks, Montreal Canadiens and Chicago Blackhawks have lost more man-games to injury than the defending Stanley Cup champions. As a result, the Golden Knights have a 12-12-4 record since Nov. 5, but still enter today’s game — the 41st of the year to mark the halfway point of the season — with 51 points after starting the season on a 12-game point streak.
By comparison, Vegas had 56 points at the halfway point last season.
“We’re missing key players that make a difference in our lineup, and we’ve asked different players to step in and try to do the best they can to fill the void of those guys that we’ve missed,” coach Bruce Cassidy said. “You’ve got to play through it … but it does affect your overall team.”
The absences are most noticeably on the blue line.
Defensemen Alec Martinez and Zach Whitecloud started the year on the injured list with upper-body ailments. Whitecloud missed the first 14 games, while Martinez missed the first four.
Amid that, Alex Pietrangelo missed five games from Oct. 14-24 after he took a puck to the face. And Whitecloud’s defense partner, Nic Hague, missed the first two weeks of November with a lower-body injury.
Upon Hague’s return in mid-November, Martinez was sidelined for 12 more games from Nov. 20 to Dec. 17 with a lower-body ailment.
Then, three days after Martinez went down, Shea Theodore was sidelined with an upper-body injury that required surgery Nov. 29, which has caused him to miss the past 20 games and counting.
Even after Theodore, it hasn’t stopped.
Rookie Kaedan Korczak hasn’t played since Dec. 10 due to a lower-body injury, but he returned to practice this week as a noncontact participant. Veteran defenseman Ben Hutton has been out since Dec. 28 with an upper-body injury that lists him as week-to-week.
That’s 78 man-games lost, and counting, for defensemen alone.
Add it all up: The Golden Knights have played only one game all season with all six regular defensemen — Pietrangelo, Theodore, Martinez, Whitecloud, Hague and Brayden McNabb — in the lineup.
“That’s a part of the chemistry that’s a little more important, I believe, than maybe up front at times,” Cassidy said. “The D chemistry, you’re the last line. There’s a lot more relying on each other.”
McNabb, who’s on pace for a career-best season offensively with 16 points (two goals, 14 assists), has been the only defenseman to play all 40 games.
In the past month-and-a-half, McNabb has skated with five different defense partners — Theodore, Hutton, Korczak, Brayden Pachal and as of Saturday, 21-year-old call-up Lukas Cormier.
“We’ve been kind of switching partners quite a bit as of late, but that’s just how it is,” McNabb said. “You adjust to the situation, and I think we’ve handled it fairly well, for the most part.”
Theodore’s absence has been, arguably, the biggest omission from the Golden Knights’ lineup. He was on pace for a career season with 18 points in 20 games.
He’s not just Vegas’ best offensive defenseman in terms of scoring. His threat to score, the ability to carry the puck into the offensive zone and set up his teammates, has been sorely missed.
Pietrangelo has those abilities, but the 33-year-old is tasked with playing on the first power play unit and the penalty kill. He leads Vegas by averaging 24 minutes, 6 seconds of ice time per game.
It’s a load that Pietrangelo is familiar with, but Cassidy is aware it’s a lot for his No. 1 defenseman to take on. And it may be showing: Vegas is 9-8-3 since Theodore’s injury.
“You can’t recreate a Theo, just plug a guy in and expect to have that,” Cassidy said. “That has a little to do with the wear on Petro (16 points in 35 games). After a while, he’s asked to do a lot of that stuff over and over, and it probably affects his overall game, too.”
Korczak and Hutton can replicate those abilities, but not to the elite level of Theodore. Once those two went down, It made the need for a puck-moving defenseman that more apparent.
Cormier, the next healthiest option who could best fit that mold, had an assist in his NHL debut Saturday, a 5-2 win against the New York Islanders. Coincidentally, Cormier’s impact halted a stretch in which the Golden Knights lost six of seven games.
“Injuries are unfortunately part of the game, and they happen,” Martinez said. “I think it just speaks to the depth of our organization that management has put together.”
Those injuries to the defenseman are just the beginning.
They don’t account for goalie Adin Hill missing 16 of the past 17 games with a lower-body injury, center William Karlsson (lower body) missing the past two games, or forward William Carrier (undisclosed) missing Saturday’s game.
There’s a mix of good and bad news on the horizon.
Hill is expected to return to the lineup tonight or Thursday at home against the Boston Bruins. That comes at a good time for the Vegas goalie situation, considering Logan Thompson has lost five of his past eight starts.
On the flip side, Karlsson — who it was initially thought would miss only two games — is now week-to-week, Cassidy said Saturday.
Carrier will also miss an undetermined period. Theodore is not close to returning, and Hutton has started skating on his own, but is not ready to rejoin the team.
The Golden Knights have three more weeks before the All-Star break and their mandatory bye week. It will be a much-needed time for rest and recuperation.
If that sounds like déjà vu, it might be. Vegas went 1-5-2 in its last eight games before the break last season, which was the immediate stretch after captain Mark Stone injured his back and underwent surgery for the second time in less than a year.
Upon returning to play, the Golden Knights went 22-4-5 in the second half and used that momentum to propel a dominant playoff run that resulted in winning the Stanley Cup.
Time will tell if history can repeat itself. This time, it might come down to health more than ever.
“We’re still in a good spot,” Cassidy said. “(The depth) has come through for us this year.”
