2024-25 was the year of Keegan Kolesar. The Manitoba native set career-highs in goals (12), assists (18), and blocked shots (49). His performance was noteworthy enough to grant him a three-year contract extension. Man, that Kelly McCrimmon guy knows a thing or two about loyalty, right?
But becoming a more prominent two-way winger wasn't what made him an important figure on the Golden Knights. Instead, it was a gritty, hard-nosed style that punishes people along the boards. Kolesar has 1,148 career hits in six seasons, averaging 264 per year.
That's a lot of hitting, making him the ideal fit for the lower lines. However, you can always excel more than the season before. It's the rule of being an exceptional athlete. There's always the next glass ceiling to be shattered, like the hopes of Josh from San Francisco seeing a Stanley Cup.
So let's see what his expectations are for the upcoming season. What must Kolesar do differently to have a bigger role? What did I like about his 2024-25 season that he must repeat? Let's start checking into this situation because it's about to get heavy!
Evaluating Keegan Kolesar's 2025-26 campaign with the Vegas Golden Knights
The goal uptick is a promising sign for a player who never previously hit more than 10 goals in a season. It shows he's playing responsibly with the puck and avoiding devastating mistakes. Considering that 34 giveaways isn't a career high (that honor goes to 2021-22 with 36), that's good for Kolesar.
That's also led to more responsibilities in other lines, where he's stepped in when someone was injured. The slow evolution of a player stepping into larger forward roles is something fans should watch for in 2025-26.
Now, what can he improve as a Golden Knight? For one, he never gets involved in faceoffs and with good reason. The winger has a career faceoff win percentage of 41.7%. Winning key faceoffs, whether it's on the penalty kill or closing out a tight game, will help the Golden Knights immensely.
Also, taking more shots will help him evolve his game on the lower lines. Now, I'm not saying he needs to be like Pavel Dorofeyev and fire off 255. But breaking the triple-digit mark this upcoming season will help him grow into a more reliable player.
Finally, can he generate more takeaways? Kolesar is known for being a strong forechecker in every sense. However, 13 takeaways in 2024-25 seem rather low. Perhaps having a stealthier game will help him become a more serviceable player.
Taking these adjustments into account will lead to better things for the 28-year-old. He's shown an innate ability to improve his play through his career while taking on more responsibilities. Such improvements will make Vegas much more dangerous in 2025-26, possibly leading to *GASP* another Stanley Cup Final appearance.