For years, the Golden Knights have relied on pairs of forwards that work together to help drive lines. Reilly Smith and William Karlsson are one of the best duos ever to don the gold jersey, and they were able to rekindle their chemistry with Smith’s arrival back in Vegas this year. Jonathan Marchessault and Jack Eichel, Chandler Stephenson and Mark Stone, and even Tomas Nosek and Pierre Edouard-Bellemare were all excellent pairs as well over the past eight years.
Vegas’ forward lines were juggled a lot this year but it appears Bruce Cassidy has found another duo that could be massively beneficial moving forward for the Golden Knights.
Tomas Hertl and Pavel Dorofeyev played 47 games together in the regular season before being paired up for another seven in the playoffs. The duo generated an impressive 67 goals between them, including 40 at even-strength.
Sometimes it just works. He likes to shoot the puck and I know he has a great shot but at the same time he’s really strong on the puck for a smaller guy. -Tomas Hertl
The pair allowed Cassidy quite a few extra options for his forward lines and their success in the Minnesota series was crucial when Karlsson, Eichel, and Stone all played together on the top line. Hertl said you never know who you might find chemistry with, and while he and Dorofeyev clicked quickly, it got even better as the year went on.
I watch him, how he plays and he watches me and the longer you are together, you know what you can expect from him. I know when Pavel was in certain situations, he was probably going to shoot, so I would get to the front of the net rather than being behind it. -Hertl
The pair couldn’t find much success in the postseason and it ultimately was a big reason why Vegas’ scoring dried up. However, Hertl believes Dorofeyev learned a lot in his first full postseason and believes he’ll get better next year.
Pavel had an awesome year and I think he surprised a lot of people. He scored 35 goals which is not easy at all. He was getting better and better as we went along too. Playoffs obviously is tough but at the same time sometimes you just have tough timing. I wish we could have found a way to be better because our team needed us. But we will learn what we didn’t do and be ready for next season to do even better. -Hertl
As the Golden Knights spend the offseason looking to bolster their depth on the wing, Dorofeyev and Hertl will be a crucial pair next season both at 5-on-5 and on the power play. Their regular season dominance together should give all Vegas fans hope that the slow postseason was simply a product of small sample size and they’ll be a consistent duo in the biggest moments moving forward.
