The Vegas Golden Knights have had major turnover within their forward group and Bruce Cassidy will be tasked with finding the best way to deploy them.

Without Jonathan Marchessault to play on Jack Eichel’s right wing, the most important task for Cassidy is to find who best fits alongside him. Michael Amadio provided offence within the middle-six and William Carrier played a vital role on the fourth-line and the Golden Knights will be without both. Tomas Hertl will be able to replace Chandler Stephenson’s production but losing his scoring ability will still hurt the team’s overall offensive depth.

With the preseason beginning on Sept. 22 and the regular season on Oct. 9, the Golden Knights still have plenty of time to determine their opening night lineup.

Balanced Attack

Ivan Barbashev – Jack Eichel – Victor Olofsson

Pavel Dorofeyev – Tomas Hertl – Mark Stone

Brendan Brisson – William Karlsson – Alexander Holtz

Brett Howden – Nicolas Roy – Keegan Kolesar

With this group, Eichel plays with Barbashev, who he’s played with since he was acquired from the St. Louis Blues and Olofsson, who he played with during his time with the Buffalo Sabres. Dorofeyev and Stone showed chemistry together last year and they’ll provide Hertl shooting options. Brisson and Holtz will play alongside a defensively sturdy veteran who will provide on-ice leadership. The fourth line has played many games with each other and will stick together to form a strong checking line.

Defence Oriented

Barbashev – Eichel – Olofsson

Dorofeyev – Karlsson – Stone

Howden – Hertl – Holtz

Brisson – Roy – Kolesar

This lineup features a shut-down line with Dorofeyev, Karlsson and Stone with the possibility Howden also moving onto that line to replace Dorofeyev to become a complete shutdown line. Brisson unfortunately moves to the fourth line in this rendition due to his age and inexperience.

Young, Offence Focused

Brisson – Eichel – Holtz

Dorofeyev – Hertl – Stone

Barbashev – Karlsson – Olofsson

Howden – Roy – Kolesar

The least likely of the three lineup features Brisson and Holtz on Eichel’s wing. Two of the more offensively gifted wingers in the Golden Knights lineup alongside the best forward makes sense but Brisson and Holtz won’t be ready for that role quite yet. The third line would be a tough checking line with a fair bit of offensive upside.

Losing a lot of their depth will force Cassidy to be creative in a different sense. In years past his creativity was seen through pairing different profiles of players together. This year, finding a balance with limited options will be his most vital task.

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