After three years away, Dylan Coghlan returns to the Golden Knights' roster

Absence often makes the heart grow fonder, and in this case, it's warmly welcoming back a VGK veteran. After re-signing with the Golden Knights in the offseason, Vegas recalled Dylan Coghlan from the AHL's Henderson Silver Knights on Monday, re-assigning HSK captain Jaycob Megna back to the minors in a corresponding move.

A refresher on Coglan's history in gold

Coghlan originally signed to VGK as undrafted free agent in 2017, shortly before the inaugural season. After a few seasons in the AHL, he debuted for the team as a fill-in for a COVID-affected Alex Pietrangelo during the pandemic-shortened 2020-21 season.

It was that season where he would record his most notable moment, as he contributed all three Golden Knights goals in a 4-3 loss to the Minnesota Wild on March 10, 2021. To date, he remains both the only defenseman and only rookie in VGK history to score a hat trick.

Unfortunately, that was the high point of his first Golden Knights tenure, as he recorded just 16 points in his time here outside of the hat trick over two seasons. He did play 59 games in the injury-ravaged 2021-22 season, but overall never quite proved himself as a starting-level defenseman. Following that year, he was dealt to the Carolina Hurricanes alongside Max Pacioretty for future considerations. The cap space was gained by moving both allowed VGK to fit Jack Eichel into the fully-healthy roster.

What's Dylan Coghlan been up to since then?

His time in Carolina was... not memorable. Ironically, he returned to the same AHL team as he'd previously played for; in the meantime, since his last AHL tenure, the Chicago Wolves had switched from Vegas to Carolina. After splitting the 2022-23 season between the NHL and AHL, he was re-signed in the offseason. He then spent the bulk of 2023-24 in the latter, posting a respectable 41 points.

However, he similarly never cracked their main roster and was moved to the Winnipeg Jets for future considerations in July of 2024. Again, he couldn't permanently crack Winnipeg's President's Trophy-winning roster, but was nearly point-per-game with the AHL Manitoba Moose, keeping his career in a good spot. Following the season, and as previously mentioned, he returned to Vegas on a one-year deal, becoming the second player (after Reilly Smith) to come back for a second go-around in gold.

What should Golden Knights fans expect out of Coghlan?

Temper your expectations, folks. The primary reason for his call-up is defensive depth; with Jeremy Lauzon still out and Ben Hutton now in an everyday role, Vegas needs a spare defenseman in case of emergency. This is an even bigger concern while being on a long road trip, where Henderson's gaggle of depth defensemen aren't readily available.

Barring injury or a maintenance day, he likely won't see the ice. It's somewhat confusing as to why they exchanged him for Megna, though, with Megna already traveling with the team; it's also maybe not the best sign for Lukas Cormier's long-term prospects that he's now been passed over twice.

With five goals and five assists in 20 games with HSK this year, Coghlan at least has some offensive touch, should he actually play. However, it's likely that for now, this is only a reunion on paper. At least, it's nice to be nostalgic about the hat trick.