The 2023-24 iteration of the Vegas Golden Knights is looking just as potent as the team that won its inaugural Stanley Cup championship just five months ago. There doesn't seem to be any title hangover in Las Vegas; they're 13-4-2 and first place in the Western Conference through 19 games. The only club that can boast a better record is the 13-1-3 Boston Bruins, who usurped the Knights for the top spot in Week 7 of ClutchPoints' NHL Power Rankings.
Still, it's been a phenomenal start to the season in Nevada. After dominating the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs, Vegas looks poised to easily get into the postseason in 2024, and back-to-back championships is obviously the goal. That's much easier said than done (just ask the 2020 and 2021 Tampa Bay Lightning), but this is a club that is built to win.
And the players are buying in in the early going. Jack Eichel, Mark Stone and Shea Theodore have all been fantastic, each fluctuating right around a point-per-game clip in 2023-24. But the most surprising player, who is leading the team in scoring and playing some of the best hockey of his career? That would be William Karlsson.
William Karlsson turning back the clock
Karlsson was one of the original ‘Golden Misfits,' the group of players who have been with the Golden Knights since their inaugural season in 2017-18. That was an incredible year for the Knights, who marched all the way to the Stanley Cup Final in their first year of existence and came within three wins of defeating Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals.
That season, the line of Karlsson, Jonathan Marchessault and Reilly Smith was electric. It was also far and away Karlsson's best season; he set career highs with 43 goals and 78 points in 82 games, a scoring clip he hasn't come close to replicating in the five years since. One of his best campaigns since then was last year, when he put up 14 goals and 53 points over a full 82-game slate.
But in 2023-24, he's looking poised to shatter his career-highs across the board. In his ninth full NHL season, Karlsson is absolutely on fire with nine goals and 20 points in 19 games. It goes without saying that if he continues this torrid stretch of offense, it'll be the best regular-season of the Swedes career.
The most impressive part of that? He's playing on the third line at even strength, with Mike Amadio and Paul Cotter. Although both of those forwards have been pleasant surprises themselves, Karlsson is getting zero exposure to Eichel, Stone or Marchessault at 5-on-5. He also started the year on the second powerplay unit, but has quickly made his way onto the top group along with the above three forwards and Theodore.
The Knights are firing on all cylinders in the early going, and 30-year-old William Karlsson is playing some of the best hockey of his career.
Ivan Barbashev disappointing after getting raise
On the flip side of Karlsson's brilliance has been the seriously disappointing start for Ivan Barbashev in his first full season with the Golden Knights. After winning a Stanley Cup with the St. Louis Blues in 2019, he was traded to Vegas midway through last season. And he was excellent, scoring 16 points in 23 regular-season contests and adding another seven goals and 18 points in a breakout postseason that saw him win Stanley Cup No. 2 in June.
The Russian was rewarded with a five-year, $25 million extension shortly after the championship, the same day Reilly Smith was shipped to the Pittsburgh Penguins. But although Smith is excelling in Pennsylvania, the same can't be said for Barbashev in Nevada.
Through 19 games, the 27-year-old has accounted for just four goals and six points. That's while consistently playing on the top line with Eichel and Marchessault, which certainly isn't ideal considering just how good he was for this team last year. He's also on the second powerplay unit, along with Cotter, Nicolas Roy, Chandler Stephenson and Alex Pietrangelo.
There haven't been too many disappointments in Las Vegas this season, and even with Barbashev's decrease in production, the team is still chugging along and winning games. The hope is that he can start to turn things around offensively and be worth the $5 million AAV he will earn for the next five years.
Overall, the Golden Knights are looking to be in as good a shape as any team can be after winning the Stanley Cup. The roster is mainly unchanged, there is potency at every position, and Logan Thompson and Adin Hill are both off to a great start between the pipes. The postseason is always a completely different story considering the parity in the league today, but it's clear this team is hungry for another title in 2024.
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