Mr. Consistency: Marchessault’s steady play leading Golden Knights yet again

By Justin Emerson

Thursday, Dec. 30, 2021 | 2 a.m.

Jonathan Marchessault is the Golden Knights’ all-time leading scorer with 249 points in 308 games.

Do you know how many times he’s gone more than three games without at least one point? Three times. In five seasons.

Marchessault is a model of consistency, the rare scorer and distributor who rarely slumps.

He had a slow start to this season with just one point in his first six games, but since then has had only six games without a point, and leads the team with 16 goals.

“I don’t look in the past, I don’t look in the future,” Marchessault said. “I just focus on the present and do what I can do in my preparation to be ready for the next game, and that’s how I focus.”

Marchessault for five years has been the model Golden Knight.

Given up on by the Panthers in 2017, he arrived with little fanfare from the expansion draft as a 26-year-old veteran of three organizations but with more years in the minor leagues than the NHL.

He burst onto the scene with 75 points in 2017-18, and although he hasn’t matched that scoring peak since, but has settled into a scoring range that is comfortingly predictable.

After his breakout inaugural season, he’s posted an 82-game pace that averages out to 26 goals and 61 points per season — 25 goals, 59 points in 2018-19; 27 goals, 58 points in 2019-20; and 27 goals, 66 points in last year’s shortened season.

“The guy loves to have fun, he’s always shooting, always taking extra shots, breakaways and I think when you have those kinds of habits (in practice) it bleeds into your game,” five-year teammate Shea Theodore said. “He’s been a big part of our group scoring for us, and it definitely helps at times.”

With 16 goals in 28 games this season, he’s on pace for a 44-goal season that would shatter his career-best of 30 in 2016-17. Much of that can be attributed to a spike in shooting percentage — this season he’s at 18.2%, well above his career average of 10.5%.

Marchessault is playing with the same linemates — William Karlsson and Reilly Smith — that he has for the past five seasons. The trio remains one of the better lines in hockey, even as both Marchessault and Karlsson have missed time this season.

It’s unlikely he hits 44 goals, but he only needs 15 in Vegas’ remaining 49 games to set a new career mark, and just three more to surpass last season’s mark.

“He’s really become a complete player,” assistant coach Steve Spott said. “We know he can score, we know he can create offense, but he’s really taken a ton of pride in defending, playing in his own end, and it hasn’t taken away from his offense.

“He deserves a ton of credit for becoming that complete player.”