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 play 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.
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. They eliminated the Minnesota Wild in the First Round, with a 6–2 victory. In the Second Round, the Golden Knights went on to defeat the Avalanche in six games. They faced the Montreal Canadiens in the Stanley Cup Semifinals, but were defeated in six games.
==Standings==
===Divisional standings===
==Schedule and results==
===Regular season===
The regular season schedule was published on December 23, 2020.
2020–21 game log 	2020–21 game log 	2020–21 game log 	2020–21 game log 	2020–21 game log 	2020–21 game log 	2020–21 game log 	2020–21 game log 	2020–21 game log 	2020–21 game log 	2020–21 game log
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January: 5–1–1 (Home: 4–0–1 ; Road: 1–1–0)	January: 5–1–1 (Home: 4–0–1 ; Road: 1–1–0)	January: 5–1–1 (Home: 4–0–1 ; Road: 1–1–0)	January: 5–1–1 (Home: 4–0–1 ; Road: 1–1–0)	January: 5–1–1 (Home: 4–0–1 ; Road: 1–1–0)	January: 5–1–1 (Home: 4–0–1 ; Road: 1–1–0) 	January: 5–1–1 (Home: 4–0–1 ; Road: 1–1–0) 	January: 5–1–1 (Home: 4–0–1 ; Road: 1–1–0) 	January: 5–1–1 (Home: 4–0–1 ; Road: 1–1–0) 	January: 5–1–1 (Home: 4–0–1 ; Road: 1–1–0) 	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 	Recap
2 	January 16 	Anaheim 	1–2 	Vegas 	OT 	Fleury 	0 	2–0–0 	4 	Recap
3 	January 18 	Arizona 	2–4 	Vegas 	 	Lehner 	0 	3–0–0 	6 	Recap
4 	January 20 	Arizona 	2–5 	Vegas 	 	Fleury 	0 	4–0–0 	8 	Recap
5 	January 22 	Vegas 	2–5 	Arizona 	 	Lehner 	2,712 	4–1–0 	8 	Recap
6 	January 24 	Vegas 	1–0 	Arizona 	 	Fleury 	2,672 	5–1–0 	10 	Recap
7 	January 26 	St. Louis 	5–4 	Vegas 	SO 	Lehner 	0 	5–1–1 	11 	Recap
— 	January 28 	St. Louis 	– 	Vegas 	Postponed due to COVID-19. Makeup date March 22.	Postponed due to COVID-19. Makeup date March 22.	Postponed due to COVID-19. Makeup date March 22.	Postponed due to COVID-19. Makeup date March 22.	Postponed due to COVID-19. Makeup date March 22.	Postponed due to COVID-19. Makeup date March 22.
===Playoffs===
2021 Stanley Cup playoffs 	2021 Stanley Cup playoffs 	2021 Stanley Cup playoffs 	2021 Stanley Cup playoffs 	2021 Stanley Cup playoffs 	2021 Stanley Cup playoffs 	2021 Stanley Cup playoffs 	2021 Stanley Cup playoffs 	2021 Stanley Cup playoffs 	2021 Stanley Cup playoffs
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West Division First Round vs. (W3) Minnesota Wild: Vegas won 4–3	West Division First Round vs. (W3) Minnesota Wild: Vegas won 4–3	West Division First Round vs. (W3) Minnesota Wild: Vegas won 4–3	West Division First Round vs. (W3) Minnesota Wild: Vegas won 4–3	West Division First Round vs. (W3) Minnesota Wild: Vegas won 4–3	West Division First Round vs. (W3) Minnesota Wild: Vegas won 4–3	West Division First Round vs. (W3) Minnesota Wild: Vegas won 4–3	West Division First Round vs. (W3) Minnesota Wild: Vegas won 4–3	West Division First Round vs. (W3) Minnesota Wild: Vegas won 4–3	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 	Recap
2 	May 18 	Minnesota 	1–3 	Vegas 	 	Fleury 	8,683 	1–1 	Recap
3 	May 20 	Vegas 	5–2 	Minnesota 	 	Fleury 	4,500 	2–1 	Recap
4 	May 22 	Vegas 	4–0 	Minnesota 	 	Fleury 	4,500 	3–1 	Recap
5 	May 24 	Minnesota 	4–2 	Vegas 	 	Fleury 	12,156 	3–2 	Recap
6 	May 26 	Vegas 	0–3 	Minnesota 	 	Fleury 	4,500 	3–3 	Recap
7 	May 28 	Minnesota 	2–6 	Vegas 	 	Fleury 	12,156 	4–3 	Recap
==Player statistics==
===Skaters===
Regular season
Player	 	 	 	 	 	
 	55	21	40	61	+26	28
 	48	24	27	51	+20	14
 	55	18	26	44	+19	39
 	53	8 	34	42	+28	14
 	56	14	25	39	+19	4
 	51	14	21	35	+22	29
 	55	18	15	33	+16	28
 	53	9 	23	32	+26	12
 	53	14	11	25	+10	18
 	41	7 	16	23	+20	16
 	38	8 	10	18	+7 	10
 	52	5 	12	17	+14	31
 	52	6 	9 	15	0 	16
 	50	6 	9 	15	+9 	14
 	44	3 	9 	12	−4 	30
 	51	2 	10	12	+9 	24
 	27	4 	6 	10	+6 	8
 	41	2 	6 	8 	+10	16
 	29	3 	3 	6 	−3 	2
† 	15	1 	4 	5 	+5 	2
 	37	1 	4 	5 	0 	27
 	6 	2 	0 	2 	0 	0
 	17	0 	2 	2 	+3 	2
 	4 	0 	1 	1 	+1 	0
 	8 	0 	1 	1 	0 	0
 	4 	0 	0 	0 	0 	2
Playoffs
Player	 	 	 	 	 	
 	19	4	12	16	+10	2
 	19	4	8 	12	+8 	18
 	13	5	6 	11	+6 	4
 	19	3	7 	10	+7 	4
 	19	1	9 	10	+7 	10
 	19	6	3 	9 	+8 	12
 	19	4	5 	9 	+6 	6
 	19	4	5 	9 	−2 	8
 	19	5	3 	8 	+2 	0
 	16	4	4 	8 	+1 	0
 	15	2	5 	7 	+2 	0
 	19	4	2 	6 	+1 	9
 	16	0	6 	6 	+8 	0
 	13	1	3 	4 	+5 	0
 	19	1	3 	4 	+3 	16
 	17	1	3 	4 	−2 	4
 	19	1	2 	3 	−1 	8
 	12	2	0 	2 	−2 	0
 	10	1	1 	2 	+2 	6
 	6 	0	1 	1 	−2 	4
 	12	0	1 	1 	+1 	16
 	2 	0	0 	0 	0 	0
 	1 	0	0 	0 	−1 	0
===Goaltenders===
Regular season
Player	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
 	36	36	2,146:36	26	10	0	71	1.98	989	.928 	6	0	1	2
 	19	19	1,155:19	13	4 	2	44	2.29	505	.913 	1	0	1	0
 	1 	1 	61:25 	1 	0 	0	4 	3.91	29 	.862 	0	0	0	0
 	1 	0 	8:15 	0 	0 	0	0 	0.00	2 	1.000	0	0	0	0
Playoffs
Player	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
 	16	16	972:52	9	7	33	2.04	403	.918	1	0	1	0
 	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.
==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)
==Current roster==
==Notes==
==References==
Category:Vegas Golden Knights seasons
Vegas Golden Knights