Vegas Golden Knights: Main Takeaways as hockey is back!

2. Golden Touch

Don’t give up a high-danger chance to Reilly Smith because, with the way things are going, you are likely to be scored upon.

Very much underrated on what is a star-studded Golden Knights roster, Smith has been highly-productive for Vegas since being acquired in a trade from the Florida Panthers at the 2017 NHL Expansion Draft.

So it shouldn’t really come as a surprise then that Smith was an absolute potent weapon for Vegas during the 2019-20 regular season, recording 27 goals and 27 assists for 54 points in 71 games.

His 27 goals this year were a career-high and Smith hardly missed a beat in that department upon the NHL’s resumption this week.

It took only just under nine minutes for Smith to light the lamp for the first time in this new reality, connecting with usual partner in-crime William Karlsson to score a shorthanded goal.

Perhaps more impressive, though, was Smith’s second goal of the night which came at the end of the first period.

With forward Nick Cousins providing an excellent screen in-front of Arizona goalie Darcy Kuemper, Smith ripped a heavy wrist-shot past Kuemper for a power play goal with both of his tallies coming on special teams.

It was an impressive outing by Smith who finished with 16:28 of total ice time, including plenty of exposure on special teams.

And, with it not clear on when top-six forward Max Pacioretty will exactly report to the Bubble in Edmonton, the Golden Knights will need players like Reilly Smith to continue to step up and provide offense.