The Vegas Golden Knights are your premier team in the Pacific Division and third in the Western Conference, as I write this. And you can point to several reasons why that’s the case, including a few high scorers.
One player who seems like they’re doing everything right, well, sans the recent 6-0 debacle to the Utah Hockey Club in which nobody on the Knights played well, is Ivan Barbashev. Overall, Barbashev has 12 goals already on the season for a 26.7 shooting percentage and 27 points in 25 contests, putting him on pace for at least a point per game trajectory and a career-high.
Yeah, you can’t say enough good things about Barbashev, but if you check out the way he’s been playing lately, it’s almost like he’s ascended to yet another level. In the past five games, he has eight points and four goals, so imagine if what he’s been doing in the not-so-distant past is nothing but a foreshadowing for a rocking and rolling December.
Ivan Barbashev has been taking his play up a few notches for the Golden Knights
The only real blemish I can see regarding Barbashev from his basic stat line is that he’s been turning the puck over a lot, with 27 giveaways so far this season. That’s not a good look, but he remains physical; the Knights are scoring 15.8 percent of the time at even strength when he’s on the ice, and all of that offensive zone success has come despite a paltry 45.9 in the Corsi For.
The latter number tells me Barbashev is doing all he can to make the most of his chances when he and the rest of the Knights are in the offensive zone. Yeah, it’s not bad at all when you’ve been on the ice, at even strength, for 32 of your team’s goals, and that number can easily increase the second Vegas gets back on track.
So far, the only player with more points than Barbashev on the Knights is Jack Eichel, whose 28 assists have him slated as one of the NHL’s premier playmakers heading into December. But, overall, Barbashev has more than stolen the show lately, and let’s hope that trajectory continues into December as the playoff races start to heat up.
If the Knights get healthy and Barbashev is still playing the way he’s been, watch out because even the Central Division’s Winnipeg Jets and Minnesota Wild won’t have an easy time with Vegas.