Taking penalties in the NHL is never a good thing. Doing something risky can leave your team short-handed and at a disadvantage. When teams like the Edmonton Oilers and Vegas Golden Knights are roaming around, they have a great opportunity to pounce on their numbers advantage. This has a variety of effects, including halting a team's momentum. When players like Ivan Barbashev and Nicholas Hague do this, your team is in trouble. Same goes for Nicholas Roy and Keegan Kolesar. You see, this treat train should never stop.
The Golden Knights didn't suffer from this issue last season, having the second-fewest team penalty minutes (585 total) last season, behind only the Dallas Stars (the team that eliminated them last season) with 554. This concept is not new to the team; the season before that, the Golden Knights had the fewest team penalty minutes in the NHL with 589. Of course, that led to bigger accomplishments for the team, including winning the Stanley Cup.
It's a testament to their style of hockey that makes them one of the best teams in the NHL. Vegas plays disciplined hockey in every sense of the word, never losing composure or making plays that change the flow. Whether it's Bruce Cassidy or former coach Pete DeBoer, it's been part of the team's identity for years. It's also translated into winning hockey, including winning the Stanley Cup in 2023.
However, some players were worse than others. They led the team in penalty minutes and committed foul acts that hurt the team. Of course, it wasn't on purpose, as the NHL is fast-paced. Still, the team had players who piled up time in the penalty box. Below are the three penalty kings for the Vegas Golden Knights in the 2023-24 season.
Being a physically strong player has its pros and cons. It starts with taking down your opponent. Your physique shakes and you lose track of where you are. Same for Ivan Barbashev, who took a 180 hit in the 2023-24 season. But sometimes those hits become overwhelmingly dangerous. That puts you in the penalty box, which Barbashev did many times.
The Russian forward spent 42 minutes in the sin bin last season, ranking third among Vegas Golden Knights players, which tied the most of his career with the other being 42 minutes in the 2022-23 season. Overall, he was well-behaved and improved his production in December, becoming a productive player with 19 goals and 26 assists, including three power play goals and a 15.6% shooting percentage.
Those numbers are also inflated due to the 21 penalty minutes he received in December and January combined. Still, he's far from a player who can stay out of trouble, especially in Las Vegas, which plays a more disciplined style of hockey. Hopefully this year will be a more forgiving one for Barbashev, as he focuses on getting up to his 2021-22 numbers (26 goals and 34 assists this season with the Blues).
Nicholas Hague is known for being a big defenseman. At 6-foot-6 and 240 pounds, he can stomp on anyone. The 25-year-old used his size to land some serious hits last season (153, a career-high), which made him one of the Vegas Golden Knights' most valuable defensive linemen.
But he was also second on the Golden Knights in penalty minutes with 43. His best times came in October (14) and March (11). Those two months included two scuffles and an illegal check to the head against Winnipeg Jets centre Vladimir Namestnikov. Those three big incidents earned the big blue lineman 15 penalty minutes. Outside of that, he's been adept at staying out of the penalty box.
Overall, Hague is a tough guy who isn't afraid to get in on people, knows his size well and punishes those who mess with him. Whether he's delivering bone-crunching checks or brawling with other hockey players, the Kitchener, Ontario native shows why he deserves to be a part of the Golden Knights for the long term.
All of the Golden Knights stars who are on the penalty kings list have honestly been playing great hockey. They've been good at avoiding bad penalties, especially compared to a guy like Liam O'Brien (who recorded 153 NHL penalty minutes last season). That's why the Golden Knights had the second-fewest team penalty minutes entering the 2023-24 season.
So, we would expect Keegan Kolesar to follow that same lead. But will he? The right winger led the team in this category with a total of… 49 penalty minutes. Kolesar led the team in total with 34 minutes in the first three months. But he dropped off drastically and led the fourth line throughout the 2023-24 season. As a result, he only earned 15 penalty minutes in the first three months.
The fact that the team's leading penalty taker only had 49 penalty minutes is a testament to the way the team is operated. Prioritizing calm decisions and not taking bad penalties leads to team success. Kolesar is supposed to be an “enforcer” but is more of a productive fourth line player who attacks opponents. He has adapted well to that role and is one of the Golden Knights' most underrated players.
