Golden Knights in position to chase Stanley Cup again next season

LAS VEGAS -- Vegas Golden Knights owner Bill Foley correctly predicted his team would win the Stanley Cup in its sixth NHL season.

And he does not expect it to be its only championship.

Foley wants to maintain the level of excellence Vegas has established since joining the League as an expansion franchise for the 2017-2018 season. The Golden Knights reached the Stanley Cup Final in their inaugural season, knocked on the door since and returned this season.

They won the Stanley Cup by defeating the Florida Panthers in the Cup Final. The best-of-7 series ended in five games with a 9-3 victory at T-Mobile Arena on Tuesday.

Foley is hungry for more.

"We're not done," he said Friday. "I told [Vegas forward William Karlsson] when he signed an eight-year deal (June 24, 2019) that I expect three Stanley Cups during the length of his contract. When we were on the ice and getting our [championship] picture taken, I looked over at him and told him, 'OK, you got one.'"

The Golden Knights are in position to make multiple runs at the Stanley Cup with the core of the roster under contract for next season. Forwards Brett Howden and Pavel Dorofeyev are set to become restricted free agents, and Ivan Barbashev, Teddy Blueger and Phil Kessel are free to sign elsewhere July 1. The top eight defensemen are under contract for next season, with Brayden Pachal the lone pending unrestricted free agent.

"One of the things I feel about this team, is we're going to be able to keep the core of our Stanley Cup Championship team together better than a lot of the previous winners," Vegas general manager Kelly McCrimmon said. "We're pretty good in terms of players locked up for next season. We'll have some work to do, we'll have some things to manage, but we're going to have a real significant core of this team return, and you hope this experience makes you a better team. The whole dressing room is Stanley Cup champions."

Vegas was led offensively in the playoffs by forwards Jack Eichel (26 points; six goals, 20 assists), Jonathan Marchessault (25 points; 13 goals, 12 assists), Mark Stone (24 points; 11 goals, 13 assists) and Chandler Stephenson (20 points; 10 goals, 10 assists). All four will return next season, though Stone's health is in question after having two back surgeries in the span of nine months.

Stone missed the final 39 games of the regular season after his second surgery Jan. 31. He originally had surgery to repair a disk in his lower back May 19, 2022.

"I did not know he was not at full health, guys play through stuff, so I hope it's nothing serious," Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said. "He will need some time away from the rink, like everybody, but especially in his situation. Hopefully he heals up and is able to strengthen that area so there's never a problem again."

There is some work to be done in the coming weeks, though. Logan Thompson is the only goalie under contract with Adin Hill, Laurent Brossoit and Jonathan Quick set to become unrestricted free agents. The status of goalie Robin Lehner is uncertain; he missed the entire season after having hip surgery last summer.

Hill started Vegas' final 14 games of the postseason after Brossoit sustained a lower-body injury in Game 3 of the Western Conference Second Round against the Edmonton Oilers. He finished 11-4 with a 2.17 goals-against average and .932 save percentage, including two shutouts in the conference final against the Dallas Stars.

Still, the core remains strong, and the Golden Knights also have a number of prospects who are potentially ready to make the jump to the NHL. Even though McCrimmon has signed or traded for high-end players in the past (Eichel, for example), he has not mortgaged the future.

"There is a notion from some people that we were all-in and if we didn't win it this year, it was this year or bust," McCrimmon said. "I think that couldn't be further from the truth. We go to the NHL Draft as Stanley Cup champion with a first-round pick. If you go backwards and look at how many times that's happened, it doesn't happen very often. We have five picks in this draft, and we've never had less than six picks in a draft."

Just days after winning the Cup for the first time, the Golden Knights are eager to do it again. They've made sure to put themselves in position to make another run.

"That's our goal, to build a team that can be a contending team on a continual basis," McCrimmon said. "I always qualify it by saying I'm not trying to diminish anything that happened in Year 1, it was an unparalleled match and was as special a season as an organization can have. But objectively, when you take a step back and you look at where you want to try and go, winning was a real priority for us after we had that Year 1 success.

"If we wanted to be a contending team on a consistent basis, we needed to continue to improve our personnel, and we've done that every year."