Take 5: These Golden Knights players are having a career season

By Jesse Granger

Tuesday, April 3, 2018 | 2 a.m.

Golden Knights forward William Karlsson has received plenty of attention for his breakout season.

The 25-year-old has crushed his career high of nine goals in a single season with a 42-goal explosion for Vegas. Karlsson is tied for third in the NHL in goals and caught the hockey world’s attention Saturday night with a highlight reel, between-the-legs goal to help the Golden Knights clinch the Pacific Division title.

But Karlsson isn’t the only Golden Knight having a career year. Here is a look at five other players that have topped career bests this season.

Jonathan Marchessault

Marchessault came to Vegas from the Florida Panthers, fresh off a breakout season where he scored 30 goals. Prior to that he had only scored three goals in his entire career, and some thought his 2016-17 performance was a flash in the pan.

Not only has Marchessault proven he can play at that level consistently, but he’s topped it. The 27-year-old forward improved from 51 points to 75, which is tops on the Golden Knights. He has set new career highs in assists (48), shots (265), blocks (26) and average time on ice (17:33).

David Perron

Unlike Marchessault and Karlsson, Perron was thought to have reached his peak prior to coming to Vegas. The 10-year NHL veteran has transformed his game into more of a facilitator on a line with James Neal and Erik Haula, allowing him to reach new career highs in assists and points.

Perron’s team-high 50 assists are a full 15 above his previous career best, which happened in 2008-09, and he is third on the team with 66 points behind only Marchessault and Karlsson.

Erik Haula

Playing mostly third-line minutes in Minnesota, Haula never topped 15 goals or 34 points in his first four years in the league. The opportunity to play alongside Perron and Neal, with an average ice time of 17:25, has allowed Haula to blossom in Vegas with career highs in goals (29) and points (55).

This is also largely due to his increased usage on the power play unit. Haula has averaged 2:21 of ice time with a man advantage this season, and leads the team with 12 power play goals and 19 power play points.

Marc-Andre Fleury

When Fleury’s name was called during the expansion draft last June, everyone expected him to be one of the best players on the team. What couldn’t have been predicted was that Fleury would have statistically the best season of his entire career at age 33.

Fleury won three Stanley Cups during his 13 years in Pittsburgh, but he never had a lower goals-against average (2.14) or a higher save percentage (.931) than he does this year with the Golden Knights. Fleury is in the top three in the NHL nearly every statistic and would be in the running for the Vezina Trophy if he hadn’t missed two months with a concussion earlier in the season.

Deryk Engelland

The most surprising of the players enjoying career years for the Golden Knights is longtime Las Vegas resident Engelland. When he was chosen from the Calgary Flames in the expansion draft, many felt it was a sentimental choice and he would spend the majority of the season as a healthy scratch.

That has been far from the case, as Engelland has played the second most minutes of any player on the team behind only Nate Schmidt. At 36 years old, Engelland has set new career highs in assists (18), points (23), shots (107), average time on ice (20:16), blocks (142) and takeaways (25) while logging a career-low 22 penalty minutes.

He has provided the veteran leadership in the locker room that everyone expected and thrived on the ice better than imagined.

Jesse Granger can be reached at 702-259-8814 or [email protected]. Follow Jesse on Twitter at twitter.com/JesseGranger_.