Vegas Golden Knights: 3 reasons why fans should be worried
2. Goaltending (Or Lack Thereof)
The Vegas Golden Knights got phenomenal goaltending last season. Not only did they manage to dominate despite having five goaltenders appear in a game for them in a span of roughly a month, goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury had the highest save percentage of his career during the regular season. During the Stanley Cup Playoffs, he was even better.
Goaltenders are hard to evaluate, but the golden rule is “never bet on an aging goaltender”. Sure, there are guys like Henrik Lundqvist, Pekka Rinne, and Robert Luongo who can remain outstanding even past the age of 33. However, these are the exceptions, not the rule.
Fleury turns 34 in November. So far this season, he has been anything but magical. Through four games, he has a .846 save percentage, down from his .927 save percentage from last season. Fleury has just one quality start in four appearances, which came against the Minnesota Wild.
He will most likely bounce back, but it’s become clear they can’t rely on him to be outstanding like he was last year. This means backup goaltender Malcolm Subban will have to give Fleury some help. The Knights should explore using Subban more to give their starting goaltender the rest he needs to be a dominant goalie.
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However, Subban didn’t do well in his first start of the year against the Pittsburgh Penguins, allowing four goals on 22 shots. Still, his .871 save percentage this season is better than Fleury’s. Vegas needs their goaltenders to start performing like they did last year.