Call me crazy, but (Ken's 2024-25 picks)

(Image credit: SinBin.vegas photographer Brandon Andreasen)

Our favorite prediction format is back. It's time for some unusual opinions on the 2024-25 Golden Knights. We'll get Jason's (and yours from our Discord channel) later in the week.

Call me crazy, but Mark Stone will set a career-high, leading only Jack Eichel in scoring on the team

Since being named a Golden Knight, Stone has been one of the team's most important offensive forces. However, he has never scored more than 21 goals in a season with the Golden Knights. The peak of his career came the year he moved to Las Vegas, when he scored 28 goals in Ottawa before scoring five more with VGK, for a total of 33. Since there are hardly any goal-scoring wingers on the roster, I'll go with it from the fact that Stone will score a lot of it. He will go beyond 30. No matter how the lineup develops over the course of the season, Stone will play with a great center and the line will be expected to produce plenty of offense. In conclusion, I think this is the year Stone stays healthy and plays nearly 80 games. I wanted to go a step further and say he'll lead the team, but I think Eichel will reach 50 and Stone doesn't.

Call me crazy, but the Golden Knights will have the worst Corsi, Fenwick and shot percentage of any team to make the playoffs, and all three will be the worst in franchise history

Last year's team almost accomplished this feat in Corsi and Fenwick (Boston was worse in both cases), but they actually finished the season with more shots on goal than they allowed (BOS, TBL and VAN all made the playoffs and failed to make it). . This year, VGK will give up more possession than ever before in team history. Not only do I think they allow more shot attempts than they manage, I also think the delta will be significant. It wouldn't surprise me if the Golden Knights allowed 600 more shot attempts than they made. On certain nights it will be too much to overcome, but on most nights the results will be close. VGK will win its fair share of games even if the Corsi battle is lost by a wide margin. A strong defense and good goaltending will keep them afloat in most games and they will feast on the bad teams to gain enough points to secure a spot in the playoffs. This season may not be pretty, but they will still win more games than they lose.

Call me crazy, but Jonas Rondbjerg will score more goals and points than Alexander Holtz

Holtz enters the season as one of the most exciting young offensive players the Golden Knights have ever had. The former No. 7 overall pick has shown he can score in the NHL, but has yet to prove he can earn the trust of an NHL coach. On the other hand, Jonas Rondbjerg is pretty much the exact opposite. I expect Holtz to get into all sorts of trouble with Bruce Cassidy, which will limit his time on the ice when he's in the lineup and probably his appearances as well. Rondbjerg may not even win the starting job outside of camp, but the fact that he'll be cleared on waivers should give him a little more wiggle room when it comes to staying on the 23-man roster. I don't expect this to be a high scoring race, so give me the guy that every trainer loves, not the one that constantly finds his way into the doghouse.

Call me crazy, but VGK's combined power play and penalty kill percentages will top 106% and be in the top 5 in the league

The Golden Knights have finished with a combined special teams percentage above 100% only twice in seven seasons. They were solid in their first year, posting a combined rating of 102.4. In the 56-game 2020-21 season, they had one of the most dominant PKs ever at 86.8, increasing the poor power play to a total of 104.6. This year the Golden Knights are becoming true special teams dealers and that will be a big reason why they have success in the standings. There are plenty of penalty shootout options and the team will be as focused on the kill as ever since most games will be lower scoring. The power play has a good chance of being the best play in team history, surpassing the team's 22.0% from 2019-20. Hertl, Hanifin, Olofsson, Holtz and Dorofeyev are all great weapons on the power play and a healthier Stein will help a lot too. Trust me, I know how scary it sounds for VGK fans to have to trust that special teams will be the team's calling card, but the makeup of the roster suggests that more than ever this year.