The 2023 Stanley Cup champions have had a quiet off-season. This, of course, comes after they did most of their roster building at last season’s trade deadline. 
Welcome to a new Oilersnation summer series called Off-Season Review, in which we’ll take a dive into what’s going on with the other 15 teams in the Western Conference. So far in the series, we’ve looked at the Calgary Flames, Vancouver Canucks, and the Los Angeles Kings. In this article, we’ll look at the team that eliminated the Edmonton Oilers in the 2023 postseason, the Vegas Golden Knights.

The Vegas Golden Knights 2023-24 season in a nutshell

Coming off their first Stanley Cup in their short franchise history, the Vegas Golden Knights had big expectations for the 2023-24 season. However, the injuries piled up for the Knights (as usual), and they were forced to make some big moves at the trade deadline.
On March 5, they traded a 2024 second-round pick and a 2026 fourth-round pick to the Washington Capitals in exchange for rental forward Anthony Mantha. He signed with the Calgary Flames when free agency opened. 
However, the Golden Knights also made a trade with the Flames prior to the deadline, moving their 2026 first-round pick, their 2024 third-round pick, and Daniil Miromanov for Noah Hanifin. Before the playoffs started, the Golden Knights re-signed Hanifin to an eight-year deal worth $58.8 million, or $7.35 million annually.
Their last move before the deadline was a shocking one, as they acquired long-time San Jose Shark Tomáš Hertl, a 2025 third-round pick, and a 2027 third-round pick in exchange for a 2025 first-round pick and prospect David Edstrom.
Despite getting long-term injured reserve veteran Mark Stone back in time for the postseason (for the third consecutive season), the eighth-seeded Knights fell to the Dallas Stars in Game 7 of the first round, ending their hopes of a back-to-back Stanley Cup.

Some Notable Statistics

Their top goal-scorer and point-getter was Jonathan Marchessault, as he scored a career-high 42 goals and 69 points in 82 games. However, Jack Eichel was their best player, as he scored 31 goals and 69 points in just 63 games before a knee injury took out 19 games of his season. Original “Misfit” William Karlsson scored 30 goals and 60 points.
Captain Mark Stone had another good season when he was healthy, as he scored 16 goals and 53 points in 56 games while being the great two-way forward he usually is. A lacerated spleen ended his regular season, but he was back in time for the postseason… for the third consecutive season.
Chandler Stephenson declined a bit, but still had a great season with the Knights, scoring 16 goals and 51 points in 75 games. However, the centre struggled in the postseason, picking up just one assist in the Knights’ seven postseason games.
Their best defenceman in terms of points was Shea Theodore, who scored five goals and 42 points in 47 games, before miraculously returning for the Knights’ postseason run. Alex Pietrangelo also missed time with injury but scored four goals and 33 points in 64 games. 
Logan Thompson played the majority of the games for the Knights, mainly due to Adin Hill’s injury. Thompson had a .908 save percentage and a 2.70 goals-against average in 46 games, while Hill had a .909 save percentage and a 2.71 goals-against average in 35 games. Prior to the injury, Hill looked like a contender for the Vezina Trophy.

Off-Season Transactions

Thanks to a busy trade deadline, the Vegas Golden Knights have had a quiet off-season in terms of signings. However, they were active with trades around the draft, trading netminder Logan Thompson to the Washington Capitals for a 2024 third-round pick and a 2025 third-round pick.
Shortly after, they traded Paul Cotter (seven goals, 25 points) to the New Jersey Devils for Akira Schmid and Alexander Holtz. The latter was selected seventh overall in the 2020 draft and scored a career-high 16 goals and 28 points in 82 games last season. This is a good trade.
The Knights brought in another netminder, Ilya Samsonov, on a one-year, $1.8 million deal, while agreeing to terms with restricted free agent Pavel Dorofeyev on a two-year deal with an annual cap hit of $1.835 million. Another restricted free agent, Kaedan Korczak, was signed to a two-year deal with an annual cap hit of $825,000.
Their big free agent signing was Victor Olofsson, who only scored seven goals and 15 points in 51 games last season, but had a career-high 28 goals in 2022-23 with the Buffalo Sabres, and  49 points the season before that. Olofsson signed a one-year deal worth $1.075 million, a good low-risk, high-reward move. In terms of depth signings, they added Cal Burke and Robert Hagg to league-minimum deals.
However, the Knights lost a whole bunch of players through free agency. Their leading scorer, Jonathan Marchessault, signed a five-year deal worth $27.5 million, or $5.5 million annually with the Nashville Predators. Chandler Stephenson signed a seven-year deal with the Seattle Kraken worth $43.75 million with a cap hit of $6.25 million.
Depth players such as William Carrier (six goals, eight points in 39 games), Anthony Mantha (three goals, 10 points in 18 games), Michael Armadio (14 goals, 27 points in 73 games) and defenceman Alec Martinez (four goals, 17 points in 55 games) all departed as well.
Overall, the team has had a lot of turnover since the 2024 trade deadline and chemistry could be a cause for concern. While the team may not have improved this free agency, when expanding the scope to the 2024 trade deadline, it looks like a pretty darn good team on paper.
And of course, you know that quite a few of their players will end up on the long-term injured reserve at some point during the season, leading to a big trade or two at the 2025 trade deadline.
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Previously in this series…