Lawless & Order: The Blog | Sept. 21

Sept. 21, 10 a.m. - Minor hockey seasons have begun. Junior and college teams are skating together. A large number of your Vegas Golden Knights have arrived in town and are well into captain's practices. VGK rookie camp came and went and main camp opened Wednesday morning.
In parts of Canada the leaves are beginning to turn. In Vegas, the daily high is threatening to stay in the double digits as September leans toward October. Hockey season is upon us.

While the best part of the year may be playoff time, there is lots to look forward to right now. Every player has a clean sheet of ice, every team is a contender and no coach has to worry about the temperature of his or her seat. This is the time of promise.
Golden Knights GM Kelly McCrimmon made some bold moves this off-season. What else is new? McCrimmon and VGK President of Hockey Operations George McPhee are not into standing pat and hoping things will work out. They are constantly evaluating their roster and then adjusting it in order to keep the team at the highest level with the hope of providing the players and coaches with an opportunity to win a Stanley Cup.
Teams don't make the NHL's final four in three of four seasons very often. Since the cap era began in 2005, only six teams have turned this trick and four of them collected Stanley Cups in the doing. The Blackhawks, Red Wings, Lightning, Kings, Rangers and Golden Knights are the only NHL clubs to accomplish the feat while living under the constraints of a salary cap and the resulting parity.
On paper, this is the best team Vegas has iced in its five-year history. Depth, balance and skill at all three positions. McCrimmon parted with future Hall of Fame goalie Marc-Andre Fleury and his $7 million salary which made room to retain Alec Martinez and Mattias Janmark as well as add forwards Evgenii Dadonov, Nolan Patrick and Brett Howden.
Decisions have to be made in the salary cap era and after watching his team fall short last spring, McCrimmon came to the conclusion he needed to alter his roster construction. Two starting goalies and their accompanying salaries wasn't the answer. The tandem of Robin Lehner and Laurent Brossoit remains elite. McCrimmon gets paid to make hard decisions and sometimes they don't jibe with fan sentiment. But time doesn't stop in the NHL. Every team is trying to get better at all times and a GM must make changes. Even the hardest ones.
KEY STORYLINES HEADING INTO TRAINING CAMP
1. Robin and Laurent
Lehner has arrived in Vegas looking fantastic. Off-season shoulder surgery, a concussion and the rigors of pro sport in the time of Covid played havoc with his last season. All that is behind him and he appears poised to have a career year. Brossoit is an excellent backup and was Conor Hellybuyck's battery mate during a Vezina season in 2019. Things will look different in the net without Fleury but goaltending will not be an issue in Vegas this season and it will remain a strength for the team.
2. Is Cogs a Spoke?
Dylan Coghlan is an excellent passer, has a bomb of a shot and plays with a bit of an edge. He's ready to be an NHL defenseman and will enter camp in the top seven along with Shea Theodore, Alex Pietrangelo, Alec Martinez, Brayden McNabb, Zach Whitecloud and Nic Hague. The question regarding Coghlan is can he usurp one of the six regulars from last season? Injuries happen and Coghlan will get ice time but one has to wonder if he can make a push for more. Training camp and the preseason is important for this young player.
3. Power Punch
The power play was a bone of contention all last season. The additions of Patrick and Dadonov gives the coaching staff more skilled players to choose from in special teams situations. Puck movement is the key to a power play. It's the manner in which to take advantage of having an extra player on the ice. Crisp passing and receiving are base elements the Golden Knights have struggled with in the past. This is another area where Coghlan might be able to make a difference.
4. All Those Centers
Lots gets made about the center position with the Golden Knights and the thinking in some corners is the team doesn't have a true No. 1 pivot. Chandler Stephenson, William Karlsson and Nicolas Roy are returning centers. Patrick, Howden and prospect Peyton Krebs all play center as well. Both Patrick and Krebs have the potential to be franchise centers.
5. Lines and More Lines
Head coach Pete DeBoer has lots of options as the season begins. Training camp and the preseason will tell us what he's thinking in this regard. Look for certain duos to stay together but lots of movement and different makeups prior to the start of the regular season. What the Golden Knights look like for Game 1 is one thing but the organization is hoping for some growth and development from younger players throughout the season.