2020–21 Vegas Golden Knights season

The 2020–21 Vegas Golden Knights season was the fourth season for the National Hockey League franchise that started playing in the 2017–18 season. They played their home games at T-Mobile Arena on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. They made the playoffs for the fourth straight season after losing in the Conference Final to the Dallas Stars in the 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs. On December 20, 2020, the league temporarily realigned into four divisions with no conferences due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing closure of the Canada–United States border. As a result of this realignment, the Golden Knights played this season in the West Division and only played games against the other teams in their new division during the regular season, and potentially the first two rounds of the playoffs.

2020–21 Vegas Golden Knights
Division	2nd West
2020–21 record	40–14–2
Home record	21–5–2
Road record	19–9–0
Goals for	191
Goals against	124
Team information
General manager	Kelly McCrimmon
Coach	Peter DeBoer
Captain	Mark Stone
Alternate captains	Alex Pietrangelo Reilly Smith
Arena	T-Mobile Arena
Minor league affiliate(s)	Henderson Silver Knights (AHL) Fort Wayne Komets (ECHL)
Team leaders
Goals	Max Pacioretty (24)
Assists	Mark Stone (40)
Points	Mark Stone (61)
Penalty minutes	Jonathan Marchessault (39)
Plus/minus	Shea Theodore (+28)
Wins	Marc-Andre Fleury (26)
Goals against average	Marc-Andre Fleury (1.98)

On April 21, the Golden Knights clinched a playoff berth after a 5–2 win over the San Jose Sharks. They were tied with the Colorado Avalanche for first in the league, as well as first in the West Division, but lost the chance to claim their first ever Presidents' Trophy because of a tiebreaker, as they finished with fewer regulation wins than Colorado. The Golden Knights eliminated the Minnesota Wild in the First Round, with a 6–2 victory. In the Second Round, the Golden Knights defeated the Avalanche in six games. They faced the Montreal Canadiens in the Stanley Cup Semifinals, but were defeated in six games.

Standings

Divisional standings

West Division

Pos	Team	GP	W	L	OTL	RW	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	p – Colorado Avalanche	56	39	13	4	35	197	133	+64	82
2	x – Vegas Golden Knights	56	40	14	2	30	191	124	+67	82
3	x – Minnesota Wild	56	35	16	5	27	181	160	+21	75
4	x – St. Louis Blues	56	27	20	9	19	169	170	−1	63
5	e – Arizona Coyotes	56	24	26	6	19	153	176	−23	54
6	e – Los Angeles Kings	56	21	28	7	19	143	170	−27	49
7	e – San Jose Sharks	56	21	28	7	15	151	199	−48	49
8	e – Anaheim Ducks	56	17	30	9	11	126	179	−53	43

Source: National Hockey League
Rules for classification: 1) Fewer number of games played (GP, only during regular season); 2) Greater number of regulation wins (RW); 3) Greater number of wins in regulation and overtime, excluding shootout wins (ROW); 4) Greater number of total wins, including shootouts (W); 5) Greater number of points earned in head-to-head play; if teams played an uneven number of head-to-head games, the result of the first game on the home ice of the team with the extra home game is discarded; 6) Greater goal differential (GD); 7) Greater number of goals scored (GF)
e – Eliminated from playoff contention; p – Clinched Presidents' Trophy; x – Clinched playoff spot

Schedule and results

Regular season

The regular season schedule was published on December 23, 2020.

2020–21 game log
January: 5–1–1 (Home: 4–0–1 ; Road: 1–1–0) # Date Visitor Score Home OT Decision Attendance Record Pts Recap 1 January 14 Anaheim 2–5 Vegas Lehner 0 1–0–0 2 2 January 16 Anaheim 1–2 Vegas OT Fleury 0 2–0–0 4 3 January 18 Arizona 2–4 Vegas Lehner 0 3–0–0 6 4 January 20 Arizona 2–5 Vegas Fleury 0 4–0–0 8 5 January 22 Vegas 2–5 Arizona Lehner 2,712 4–1–0 8 6 January 24 Vegas 1–0 Arizona Fleury 2,672 5–1–0 10 7 January 26 St. Louis 5–4 Vegas SO Lehner 0 5–1–1 11 — January 28 St. Louis – Vegas Postponed due to COVID-19. Makeup date March 22.
February: 7–3–0 (Home: 4–2–0 ; Road: 3–1–0) # Date Visitor Score Home OT Decision Attendance Record Pts Recap — February 1 Vegas – San Jose Postponed due to COVID-19. Makeup date February 13. — February 3 Vegas – San Jose Postponed due to COVID-19. Makeup date February 25. 8 February 5 Los Angeles 2–5 Vegas Fleury 0 6–1–1 13 9 February 7 Los Angeles 3–4 Vegas Lehner 0 7–1–1 15 10 February 9 Anaheim 4–5 Vegas Fleury 0 8–1–1 17 11 February 11 Anaheim 1–0 Vegas Fleury 0 8–2–1 17 12 February 13 Vegas 3–1 San Jose Fleury 0 9–2–1 19 13 February 14 Colorado 0–1 Vegas Fleury 0 10–2–1 21 14 February 16 Colorado 3–2 Vegas Fleury 0 10–3–1 21 15 February 20 Vegas 2–3 Colorado Fleury 0 (outdoors) 10–4–1 21 16 February 22 Vegas 3–0 Colorado Fleury 0 11–4–1 23 — February 25 Vegas – San Jose Postponed due to COVID-19. Makeup date May 12. 17 February 27 Vegas 3–2 Anaheim OT Fleury 0 12–4–1 25
March: 12–5–0 (Home: 6–1–0 ; Road: 6–4–0) # Date Visitor Score Home OT Decision Attendance Record Pts Recap 18 March 1 Minnesota 4–5 Vegas OT Fleury 2,605 13–4–1 27 19 March 3 Minnesota 1–5 Vegas Fleury 2,610 14–4–1 29 20 March 5 Vegas 5–4 San Jose OT Dansk 0 15–4–1 31 21 March 6 Vegas 4–0 San Jose Fleury 0 16–4–1 33 22 March 8 Vegas 0–2 Minnesota Fleury 0 16–5–1 33 23 March 10 Vegas 3–4 Minnesota Fleury 0 16–6–1 33 24 March 12 Vegas 5–4 St. Louis OT Fleury — 17–6–1 35 25 March 13 Vegas 5–1 St. Louis Fleury — 18–6–1 37 26 March 15 San Jose 1–2 Vegas Fleury 3,473 19–6–1 39 27 March 17 San Jose 4–5 Vegas Fleury 3,473 20–6–1 41 28 March 19 Vegas 4–2 Los Angeles Lehner 0 21–6–1 43 29 March 21 Vegas 1–3 Los Angeles Fleury 0 21–7–1 43 30 March 22 St. Louis 1–5 Vegas Lehner 3,750 22–7–1 45 31 March 25 Vegas 1–5 Colorado Fleury 0 22–8–1 45 32 March 27 Vegas 3–2 Colorado OT Fleury 0 23–8–1 47 33 March 29 Los Angeles 1–4 Vegas Lehner 3,950 24–8–1 49 34 March 31 Los Angeles 4–2 Vegas Fleury 3,950 24–9–1 49
April: 11–3–1 (Home: 5–1–1 ; Road: 6–2–0) # Date Visitor Score Home OT Decision Attendance Record Pts Recap 35 April 1 Minnesota 3–2 Vegas SO Lehner 3,950 24–9–2 50 36 April 3 Minnesota 2–1 Vegas Fleury 3,950 24–10–2 50 37 April 5 Vegas 6–1 St. Louis Lehner — 25–10–2 52 38 April 7 Vegas 1–3 St. Louis Fleury — 25–11–2 52 39 April 9 Arizona 4–7 Vegas Lehner 3,950 26–11–2 54 40 April 11 Arizona 0–1 Vegas Fleury 3,950 27–11–2 56 41 April 12 Vegas 4–2 Los Angeles Lehner 0 28–11–2 58 42 April 14 Vegas 6–2 Los Angeles Fleury 0 29–11–2 60 43 April 16 Vegas 4–0 Anaheim Lehner 1,717 30–11–2 62 44 April 18 Vegas 5–2 Anaheim Fleury 1,717 31–11–2 64 45 April 19 San Jose 2–3 Vegas SO Lehner 3,950 32–11–2 66 46 April 21 San Jose 2–5 Vegas Fleury 3,950 33–11–2 68 47 April 24 Vegas 5–1 Anaheim Lehner 1,717 34–11–2 70 48 April 28 Colorado 2–5 Vegas Fleury 3,950 35–11–2 72 49 April 30 Vegas 0–3 Arizona Lehner 5,111 35–12–2 72
May: 5–2–0 (Home: 2–1–0 ; Road: 3–1–0) # Date Visitor Score Home OT Decision Attendance Record Pts Recap 50 May 1 Vegas 3–2 Arizona OT Fleury 5,671 36–12–2 74 51 May 3 Vegas 5–6 Minnesota Lehner 3,000 36–13–2 74 52 May 5 Vegas 3–2 Minnesota OT Fleury 3,000 37–13–2 76 53 May 7 St. Louis 3–4 Vegas OT Lehner 7,567 38–13–2 78 54 May 8 St. Louis 1–4 Vegas Fleury 7,567 39–13–2 80 55 May 10 Colorado 2–1 Vegas Lehner 7,567 39–14–2 80 56 May 12 Vegas 6–0 San Jose Fleury 1,654 40–14–2 82
Legend:   Win (2 points)   Loss (0 points)   Overtime/shootout loss (1 point)   Postponement

Playoffs

Main article: 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs

2021 Stanley Cup playoffs
West Division First Round vs. (W3) Minnesota Wild: Vegas won 4–3 # Date Visitor Score Home OT Decision Attendance Series Recap 1 May 16 Minnesota 1–0 Vegas OT Fleury 8,683 0–1 2 May 18 Minnesota 1–3 Vegas Fleury 8,683 1–1 3 May 20 Vegas 5–2 Minnesota Fleury 4,500 2–1 4 May 22 Vegas 4–0 Minnesota Fleury 4,500 3–1 5 May 24 Minnesota 4–2 Vegas Fleury 12,156 3–2 6 May 26 Vegas 0–3 Minnesota Fleury 4,500 3–3 7 May 28 Minnesota 2–6 Vegas Fleury 12,156 4–3 West Division Second Round vs. (W1) Colorado Avalanche: Vegas won 4–2 # Date Visitor Score Home OT Decision Attendance Series Recap 1 May 30 Vegas 1–7 Colorado Lehner 10,489 0–1 2 June 2 Vegas 2–3 Colorado OT Fleury 10,491 0–2 3 June 4 Colorado 2–3 Vegas Fleury 17,504 1–2 4 June 6 Colorado 1–5 Vegas Fleury 18,081 2–2 5 June 8 Vegas 3–2 Colorado OT Fleury 10,495 3–2 6 June 10 Colorado 3–6 Vegas Fleury 18,149 4–2 Stanley Cup Semifinals vs. (N4) Montreal Canadiens: Montreal won 4–2 # Date Visitor Score Home OT Decision Attendance Series Recap 1 June 14 Montreal 1–4 Vegas Fleury 17,884 1–0 2 June 16 Montreal 3–2 Vegas Fleury 17,920 1–1 3 June 18 Vegas 2–3 Montreal OT Fleury 3,500 1–2 4 June 20 Vegas 2–1 Montreal OT Lehner 3,500 2–2 5 June 22 Montreal 4–1 Vegas Fleury 17,969 2–3 6 June 24 Vegas 2–3 Montreal OT Lehner 3,500 2–4
Legend:   Win   Loss

Player statistics

Skaters

Regular season

Player	GP	G	A	Pts	+/−	PIM
Mark Stone	55	21	40	61	+26	28
Max Pacioretty	48	24	27	51	+20	14
Jonathan Marchessault	55	18	26	44	+19	39
Shea Theodore	53	8	34	42	+28	14
William Karlsson	56	14	25	39	+19	4
Chandler Stephenson	51	14	21	35	+22	29
Alex Tuch	55	18	15	33	+16	28
Alec Martinez	53	9	23	32	+26	12
Reilly Smith	53	14	11	25	+10	18
Alex Pietrangelo	41	7	16	23	+20	16
Tomas Nosek	38	8	10	18	+7	10
Nicolas Hague	52	5	12	17	+14	31
William Carrier	52	6	9	15	0	16
Nicolas Roy	50	6	9	15	+9	14
Keegan Kolesar	44	3	9	12	−4	30
Zach Whitecloud	51	2	10	12	+9	24
Cody Glass	27	4	6	10	+6	8
Brayden McNabb	41	2	6	8	+10	16
Dylan Coghlan	29	3	3	6	−3	2
Mattias Janmark†	15	1	4	5	+5	2
Ryan Reaves	37	1	4	5	0	27
Dylan Sikura	6	2	0	2	0	0
Nick Holden	17	0	2	2	+3	2
Peyton Krebs	4	0	1	1	+1	0
Tomas Jurco	8	0	1	1	0	0
Patrick Brown	4	0	0	0	0	2

Playoffs

Player	GP	G	A	Pts	+/−	PIM
William Karlsson	19	4	12	16	+10	2
Alex Pietrangelo	19	4	8	12	+8	18
Max Pacioretty	13	5	6	11	+6	4
Reilly Smith	19	3	7	10	+7	4
Shea Theodore	19	1	9	10	+7	10
Jonathan Marchessault	19	6	3	9	+8	12
Alex Tuch	19	4	5	9	+6	6
Nicolas Roy	19	4	5	9	−2	8
Mark Stone	19	5	3	8	+2	0
Mattias Janmark	16	4	4	8	+1	0
Nick Holden	15	2	5	7	+2	0
Alec Martinez	19	4	2	6	+1	9
Chandler Stephenson	16	0	6	6	+8	0
Brayden McNabb	13	1	3	4	+5	0
Zach Whitecloud	19	1	3	4	+3	16
Keegan Kolesar	17	1	3	4	−2	4
William Carrier	19	1	2	3	−1	8
Patrick Brown	12	2	0	2	−2	0
Nicolas Hague	10	1	1	2	+2	6
Tomas Nosek	6	0	1	1	−2	4
Ryan Reaves	12	0	1	1	+1	16
Dylan Sikura	2	0	0	0	0	0
Cody Glass	1	0	0	0	−1	0

Goaltenders

Regular season

Player	GP	GS	TOI	W	L	OT	GA	GAA	SA	SV%	SO	G	A	PIM
Marc-Andre Fleury	36	36	2,146:36	26	10	0	71	1.98	989	.928	6	0	1	2
Robin Lehner	19	19	1,155:19	13	4	2	44	2.29	505	.913	1	0	1	0
Oscar Dansk	1	1	61:25	1	0	0	4	3.91	29	.862	0	0	0	0
Logan Thompson	1	0	8:15	0	0	0	0	0.00	2	1.000	0	0	0	0

Playoffs

Player	GP	GS	TOI	W	L	GA	GAA	SA	SV%	SO	G	A	PIM
Marc-Andre Fleury	16	16	972:52	9	7	33	2.04	403	.918	1	0	1	0
Robin Lehner	3	3	182:27	1	2	11	3.62	97	.887	0	0	0	0

^†Denotes player spent time with another team before joining the Golden Knights. Stats reflect time with the Golden Knights only.
^‡Denotes player was traded mid-season. Stats reflect time with the Golden Knights only.
Bold/italics denotes franchise record.

Transactions

See also: 2020–21 NHL transactions

The Golden Knights were involved in the following transactions during the 2020–21 season.

Trades

* Retained Salary Transaction: Each team is allowed up to three contracts on their payroll where they have retained salary in a trade (i.e. the player no longer plays with Team A due to a trade to Team B, but Team A still retains some salary). Only up to 50% of a player's contract can be kept, and only up to 15% of a team's salary cap can be taken up by retained salary. A contract can only be involved in one of these trades twice.

Date	Details		Ref
October 7, 2020	To Detroit Red Wings 4th-round pick in 2022	To Vegas Golden Knights 5th-round pick in 2020 (#125 overall)
October 9, 2020	To Winnipeg Jets Paul Stastny	To Vegas Golden Knights Carl Dahlstrom conditional 4th-round pick in 2022
October 12, 2020	To Vancouver Canucks Nate Schmidt	To Vegas Golden Knights 3rd-round pick in 2022
April 12, 2021	To San Jose Sharks BUF 5th-round pick in 2022	To Vegas Golden Knights Mattias Janmark*
April 12, 2021	To Chicago Blackhawks 2nd-round pick in 2021 3rd-round pick in 2022	To Vegas Golden Knights Nick DeSimone 5th-round pick in 2022
July 17, 2021 (2021-07-17)	To Nashville Predators Cody Glass	To Vegas Golden Knights Nolan Patrick
July 17, 2021 (2021-07-17)	To New York Rangers Nick DeSimone WPG 4th-round pick in 2022	To Vegas Golden Knights Brett Howden

Players acquired

Date	Player	Former team	Term	Via	Ref
October 10, 2020 (2020-10-10)	Tomas Jurco	Edmonton Oilers	1-year	Free agency
October 11, 2020 (2020-10-11)	Danny O'Regan	New York Rangers
October 12, 2020 (2020-10-12)	Alex Pietrangelo	St. Louis Blues	7-year
March 16, 2021 (2021-03-16)	Daniil Miromanov	HC Sochi (KHL)	1-year†‡
March 30, 2021 (2021-03-30)	Zack Hayes	Henderson Silver Knights (AHL)	3-year†‡
Legend:  †  Contract is entry-level.  ‡  Contract begins in 2021–22 season.

Players lost

Date	Player	New team	Term	Via	Ref
October 9, 2020 (2020-10-09)	Jon Merrill	Detroit Red Wings	1-year	Free agency
	Nick Cousins	Nashville Predators	2-year
October 10, 2020 (2020-10-10)	Curtis McKenzie	St. Louis Blues	1-year
November 2, 2020 (2020-11-02)	Jaycob Megna	San Jose Barracuda (AHL)
December 1, 2020 (2020-12-01)	Garret Sparks	Orlando Solar Bears (ECHL)
December 22, 2020 (2020-12-22)	Deryk Engelland			Retirement
February 10, 2021 (2021-02-10)	Brett Lernout	Colorado Eagles (AHL)	Professional tryout	Free agency
July 5, 2021 (2021-07-05)	Oscar Dansk	HC Spartak Moscow (KHL)	2-year

Signings

Date	Player	Term	Ref
October 7, 2020 (2020-10-07)	Chandler Stephenson	4-year
	Gage Quinney	1-year
October 8, 2020 (2020-10-08)	Reid Duke
	Jimmy Schuldt
October 9, 2020 (2020-10-09)	Tomas Nosek
October 19, 2020 (2020-10-19)	Keegan Kolesar	2-year
December 31, 2020 (2020-12-31)	Lukas Cormier	3-year†
January 25, 2021 (2021-01-25)	Pavel Dorofeyev
March 29, 2021 (2021-03-29)	Peter DiLiberatore
March 30, 2021 (2021-03-30)	Layton Ahac	3-year†‡
April 7, 2021 (2021-04-07)	Maxim Marushev	2-year†‡
May 31, 2021 (2021-05-31)	Mason Primeau	3-year†‡
Legend:  †  Contract is entry-level.  ‡  Contract begins in 2021–22 season.

Draft picks

See also: List of Vegas Golden Knights draft picks

Below are the Vegas Golden Knights' selections at the 2020 NHL Entry Draft, which was originally scheduled for June 26–27, 2020, at the Bell Center in Montreal, Quebec, but was postponed on March 25, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The draft was held virtually via video conference call on October 6–7, 2020, from the NHL Network studio in Secaucus, New Jersey.

Round	#	Player	Pos	Nationality	College/Junior/Club team (League)
1	29	Brendan Brisson	C	United States	Chicago Steel (USHL)
3	68	Lukas Cormier	D	Canada	Charlottetown Islanders (QMJHL)
3	91	Jackson Hallum	C	United States	St. Thomas Academy (Minnesota)
6	184	Noah Ellis	D	United States	Des Moines Buccaneers (USHL)
7	215	Maxim Marushev	C	Russia	Bars Kazan (VHL)