Vegas Golden Knights: The Evgenii Dadonov Trade Is Not Working Out

The Vegas Golden Knights have made it a roller coaster ride for the Vegas fan base. With so many injuries that have caused for a late of hate, the Knights have thought to be coming around after the slow start to the season.

Now the Vegas Golden Knights team could be looked as a team that is starting to become recognizable, but there are still some glaring holes on their team. Well not necessarily holes, but there are definitely some things that have become noticeable in a bad way.

Based upon the previous articles I’ve written, I could be talking about a number of different things. I could be talking about Mattias Janmark and how he’s underperformed this season, I could be talking about Shea Theodore, Alex Pietrangelo, but there’s another name that need’s to be added to the long list of Vegas Golden Knight players that have underperformed expectations: Evgenii Dadonov.

The Vegas Golden Knights went out this off-season and signed forward, Evgenii Dadonov to help increase depth on their roster. Unfortunately, for the Knights, Dadonov has underperformed the expectations set by both the fans and the coaches.

Evgenii Dadonov was brought in during the off-season on a trade with the Ottawa Senators. Dadonov was sent to the Vegas Golden Knights and in return, the Senators received Nick Holden and a 2022 third-round pick.

Now, it’s safe to say that the Vegas Golden Knights might’ve won the trade over the Senators, but it’s not exactly like Dadonov is tearing it up for the Knights. In fact, Dadonov hasn’t done really anything for the Knights.

So far this season, Dadonov has played in 12 games for the Vegas Golden Knights this season. In those 12 games he has two goals and two assists and a +/- of +2. Which isn’t exactly what you expect from a guy who has as much skill as he does.

Dadonov has proven to be a very good skater, has pretty good skill with the puck, decent vision, but yet there is something that just doesn’t seem to be clicking for him so far.

When the Vegas Golden Knights traded for Dadonov, they were expecting a guy who can put up 20+ goals for them this season which he did three times in his stint with the Florida Panthers. But the question that needs to be asked is which Dadonov are the Vegas Golden Knights getting?

Are they getting the same Evgenii Dadonov who had 81 goals, 101 assists, and 182 total points in three seasons with the Panthers? Or are they getting the player who first broke into the league who played in 55 games and only had 10 goals and 10 assists?

Right now, it appears as though old habits will die hard with Evgenii Dadonov. There is an argument that can be made that right now there is a lot more pressure on him to perform that there usually would be.

If the Vegas Golden Knights had Mark Stone, Max Pacioretty, William Karlsson, and Jack Eichel in the lineup, the pressure for Dadonov to perform would be a lot less. Which could in retrospect allow him to perform to a great extent. But that’s a big if given that he would also receive less time on the ice more than likely.