The Vegas Golden Knights entered Friday without a first-round pick in the 2026 NHL Entry Draft. They changed that before the San Jose Sharks selected Ivar Stenberg at 2nd overall.
Of course, they had to give something to get something. And the something they gave was
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The Golden Knights sent 25-year-old Pavel Dorofeyev, a Restricted Free Agent and their two-time leading goalscorer, to the Big Apple in exchange for a first-round pick in 2026, a third-round pick in 2026, and a first-round pick in 2028.
The New York Rangers quickly signed Dorofeyev to a seven-year, $11 million contract. That’s a deal the Golden Knights were never going to agree to, as they currently have just $4,625,000 in salary cap space and only 13 skaters signed. They’ll gain another $8,800,000 in relief if they put Alex Pietrangelo on Season Ending LTIR, but that’s still a far cry from being able to afford giving Dorofeyev $77 million.
Dorofeyev was a rare home-grown talent, selected 79th overall by the Golden Knights in 2019. He broke into the NHL in 2023 and went on to lead the team in goals for two straight seasons, scoring 35 in 2024-25 and 37 in 2025-26.
In their pursuit of success, the Golden Knights have flipped almost every prospect or draft pick with value for players to help them win now. As a result, they’ve enjoyed unprecedented success over their nine-year history. But now, the cupboard is bare.
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Because the Golden Knights weren’t going to write Dorofeyev the check he wanted, trading him was the only option. But did they get enough in return to justify losing their best goalscorer?
On one hand, the Golden Knights turned a third-round pick in 2019 into the 26th overall pick in the 2026 Draft. On paper, that’s an excellent return on investment, especially since just eight players drafted by Vegas went on to play at least 100 NHL games. Only four did so with the Golden Knights, and just one– Kaedan Korczak– is still with the organization.
On the other hand, for all their elite offensive talent, the Golden Knights don’t have many players who want to put the puck in the back of the net.
No Golden Knight has scored more goals over the past two seasons than Dorofeyev, who scored a total of 72. The next closest scorers were Tomáš Hertl with 56 and Jack Eichel with 55. After that, it’s a pretty steep drop-off— Mark Stone with 47, Ivan Barbashev with 46, and Brett Howden with 35.
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The Golden Knights made it all the way to the Stanley Cup Final this year and were just two wins away from winning their second Stanley Cup in four years. And then, an old demon reared its ugly head, and the 2025-26 season ended the exact same way that the 2024-25 season did.
After scoring 13 goals through the first three games of the Stanley Cup Final, the Golden Knights scored just five goals over their final three games.
Dorofeyev scored the Golden Knights’ only two goals in Game 5, and they were shut out in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final. For the second straight year, their season ended because they couldn’t score a single goal.
Can two first-round picks and a third-rounder replace Dorofeyev, who scored 37 regular-season goals and 12 in the postseason? Is the return enough to replace Dorofeyev and his 20 power-play goals during the 2025-26 season?
Only time will tell.
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