Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Theodore, Holden turning into Golden Knights best defensive pair

Theodore

Mark Humphrey / AP

Golden Knights defenseman Shea Theodore plays against the Nashville Predators in the first half of an NFL football game Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2019, in Nashville, Tenn.

A change to the Golden Knights player rotation last month has produced immediate results.

In the 11 games since Shea Theodore and Nick Holden have been paired together, the two have statistically become one of the best defensive pairs in the NHL.

In 191 minutes of 5-on-5 ice time together, Theodore and Holden control 59.1% of the shot attempts (Corsi), the best of any Golden Knights pair and third-best in the league. They also have a 60.4 expected-goals percentage, 13th-best in the NHL. They only played together 12% of the time last season, but clearly didn’t lack chemistry with each other.

“I definitely notice how well we play,” Theodore said. “I feel like we’re pretty good at our D-zone exits and we do play in the offensive zone I feel a lot more. I guess to hear some stats like that really backs it up.”

Theodore, 24, has been the driving force on the blue line all season. Of the Golden Knights nine combinations of defensemen that have spent at least 100 minutes together, Theodore is part of three of the top four pairs by expected goals and four of the top five in Corsi percentage.

He has 19 points in 18 games since Dec. 13, putting him on a 49-point pace for the season that would beat his previous career-best by 11 points. He already has a trio of three-point games this season, something he had only done twice in his previous four seasons combined.

“He’s one of those guys where you don’t appreciate how good he is until you get behind the bench and watch him play every night,” Vegas coach Peter DeBoer said. “He’s an elite-level defenseman. You always knew he was good, but he’s very good.”

But let’s not forget about Holden. The 32-year-old had a disappointing first season with the Golden Knights last year, starting slow and never finding a groove where he was comfortable. He was healthy-scratched in the final six games of the playoff series with San Jose.

He started the season well and has seen his possession numbers skyrocket since playing on Theodore’s left. They appear to have good rhythm, with Holden taking extra care to cover the point when Theodore joins the rush.

Although Holden doesn’t have a point since he was paired with Theodore, that’s not what he’s going for.

“We’ve been able to talk to each other and start reading off each right away and been able to generate some offense,” Holden said. “As soon as we started pairing together we wanted to make sure that we were being aggressive and supporting each other, so if he’s pinching I’m right behind him getting pucks that are being chipped out or vice-versa. Our style complements each other, I guess. I don’t know what it is.”

DeBoer favors a system where he leans on his defensemen. After averaging 21:47 of ice time in the first 49 games of the year, Theodore is up to 24:33 in three games under DeBoer, including a career-high 28:43 on Jan. 18 in Montreal. Ditto for Nick Holden, who has jumped from 19:00 to 21:15 in the last three games.

“I thought those guys have played really well,” DeBoer said. “Good pair.”