Young Golden Knights trio showcase talents in dominating win

The Golden Knights selected Cody Glass with their first-ever draft pick. They chose Nicolas Hague one round later. They signed Dylan Coghlan as an undrafted free agent a few months after that.

All three entered the organization in 2017, the first year of the Golden Knights’ existence. They were part of the core that one day Vegas would rely on as they aged with the young franchise.

Those three are also roommates. All together now in Vegas for the first time, they played in their first game together Friday night. It was Coghlan’s NHL debut, and Hague and Glass scored in a 5-2 win over the Los Angeles Kings at T-Mobile Arena.

“We knew coming into the year that those guys were going to be important,” coach Pete DeBoer said. “I was excited to see those guys back in the lineup and what they’re capable of doing, and I think we’ve all got a lot of confidence in those guys.”

Glass, 21, and Hague, 22, both broke into the league last season, and Coghlan, 22, followed Friday night. He played 13:15 in his debut, missing the net on his only shot attempt of the game.

Overall, a game like that was perfect for a player breaking into the league. Hague’s goal came 50 seconds into the game, and by the 10:40 mark of the first period the Knights led 3-0. They connected again early in the second, and Glass’ power-play tally in the third capped the Vegas scoring.

“Obviously we were very excited for Dylan coming into it and he played a really good game,” Glass said. “We were all excited to get back at it, and to get the win was special for Coghlan on his first night.”

Glass scored in his second outing in a row, but it was perhaps the finest game of Hague’s career. There were 42 to choose from prior to Friday, and in only one of them did he score and in none of them did he record three points as he did to beat the Kings. He scored Vegas’ first goal, then assisted on goals by Jonathan Marchessault and William Karlsson.

He also was thrust into a bigger role defensively. Without defensemen Brayden McNabb (lower-body) and Alex Pietrangelo (COVID-19 protocols), Hague drew in on the second pair, and played 20:41 of ice time, a season-high by nearly five minutes and about a minute shy of a career-high. He played well at both ends of the ice, registering three hits and four blocked shots to go with his goal and two assists.

“I don’t ever feel intimidated or in awe of other teams’ top lines,” Hague said. “I feel like I can defend a lot better this year, which is something I’ve been trying to work on, and an area of my game that I thought needed improvement after last year.”

Outside of the three younger players, Vegas’ top players had quite the night. Karlsson and Max Pacioretty joined Hague with three points on the night, and Stone had a goal and an assist to up his point total to 13 in eight games this year.

It’s doubly impressive considering the circumstances. Some rust would be forgiven if Vegas started slow after having not played since Jan. 26 due to COVID-19-related postponements. Instead, they scored faster than they have have since DeBoer took over as coach, and coasted the rest of the way.

“This is a hard league to win in any night, particularly when you throw different circumstances like a 10-day layoff in there,” DeBoer said. “It wasn’t a perfect game, but we showed up and got the job done.”

Glass said after morning skate that it was going to be a good day in the household when the trio got to play in the NHL together for the first time. He was referring mostly to Coghlan, then he and Hague put the puck in the net.

But don’t think that means that Coghlan will let that upstage his big night, with friends and family gathering at a restaurant in his native British Columbia to watch the first game of what they all hope will be a long NHL career.

“No, I won’t let that happen,” Coghlan said. “I was happy for them to both score and get on the scoresheet. It’s unfortunate that I didn’t but I was happy to be here. I wouldn’t have wanted to do it with anyone else or any other team. They made it super easy for me to adjust, and that was awesome.”