Five Questions Before VGK Training Camp | Ryan Rose

by Ryan Rose

The Five Questions Vegas Carries Into Camp

1. How much does the short offseason cost them?

Every team that plays deep into June pays for it the next fall. The Golden Knights played all the way to the Stanley Cup Final before losing to Carolina, which means the summer break was weeks shorter than it is for most clubs.

That shows up in small ways. Bodies that took a long postseason beating get less time to heal. Skating and conditioning work gets compressed. Players who normally have a full summer to add strength or fix something in their game have to do it on a tighter calendar.

It also shows up in mood, and that part is harder to measure. The first team event after the Final loss was the annual VGK Golf Classic at TPC Summerlin on Tuesday, September 8. The words coming out of that day pointed at unfinished business rather than exhaustion, which is what you would want to hear. Whether that carries through an 82 game season is the actual question.

2. Can four preseason games do the work of seven?

This is the structural question underneath all the others. A seven game preseason lets a coaching staff run a lot of combinations. You can give a bubble player three or four looks in different roles, sit him, then look again. You can try a defense pair for two periods and move on without wasting a night.

Four games does not allow that. Roughly half the runway is gone. Players who might have earned a job on the strength of a strong fifth or sixth exhibition game will not get that chance this year, because the fifth and sixth games do not exist.

There is a second effect that is easy to miss. Preseason games are also where a coaching staff tests chemistry between players who have never skated together. Chemistry is not something you can install in a practice drill. It shows up, or it does not, when the game speeds up and two players have to read each other without talking. Four games is a thin sample to make that call on.

Practically, it means practice reps at City National Arena matter more than they usually do. It also means the players who came into September already in game shape have a real advantage over the ones who planned to build into form across the exhibition schedule.

Hockey players competing during a game as roster spots are decided in a short preseason

3. Who covers the minutes Kaedan Korczak used to play?

On the blue line, Parker Wotherspoon steps into the spot Kaedan Korczak held. That is the swap, and it is the cleanest of the five questions to state and the hardest to judge until games start.

Defense pairs are not interchangeable parts. A defenseman who looks fine in one role can look shaky in another, depending on who he plays with, which side he plays, and what the coaching staff asks of him. Camp is where a staff figures out whether the new player slots in where the old one was or whether the whole group shifts around him.

Watch the pairs in practice, and watch who takes the ice in the defensive zone late in close preseason games. That is usually the clearest tell about where a coaching staff has actually landed, more than any depth chart posted online.

4. Who replaces Keegan Kolesar on the fourth line?

Marc Gatcomb is the first candidate to fill the role Keegan Kolesar played on the fourth line. That is where the conversation starts, not where it ends.

Fourth line jobs in the NHL are specific. A player in that spot is usually asked to forecheck hard, be physical, kill clock, and stay out of the penalty box. It is not a role that shows up in a points column, which is exactly why it is hard to evaluate from the outside and why camp exists.

Gatcomb being the first name in line does not make it settled. It makes him the player everyone else in camp has to beat. In a four game preseason, that is a real head start.

5. Who wins the two wing spots next to Nic Dowd?

The open competition is for the two wing positions alongside Nic Dowd on that fourth line. Dowd is the center. The wings are the actual jobs available.

This is the battle that usually decides a few careers each September. Two NHL roster spots, a short window, and a group of players who all believe they should get one. Some of them are veterans on the edge of the lineup. Some are young players pushing up from the minors. Some are camp invitees trying to earn a contract.

Camp battles like this one are also where prospects get their first real look. The Golden Knights announced on Monday, September 14, that defenseman Juho Piiparinen has been recalled from Tappara of Finland's Liiga and will attend camp later this week. He is 18, he was the 29th overall pick in the 2026 NHL Draft, and this is his first camp in Las Vegas. He is not competing for a fourth line wing spot, but he is part of the same story: camp is where the organization takes inventory.

Why It Matters to Las Vegas Residents

For a lot of Clark County families, the Golden Knights are the sports team. Not a team they follow from a distance, but the one they buy jerseys for, plan Friday nights around, and take their kids to see.

So the roster decided over the next two weeks is the group locals will spend all winter with. The fourth line grinder who wins a job in September is the guy people will be shouting about in February. That matters more here than it would in a city with five pro franchises and a century of history.

There is also a practical local angle. Training camp at City National Arena in Summerlin is one of the few times of year fans can see NHL players up close without buying a ticket to T-Mobile Arena. The rink sits in a walkable part of Summerlin, next to shops and restaurants, and camp season brings real foot traffic to that corner of the valley.

And the Golden Knights have become part of how Las Vegas sees itself. The franchise is entering its 10th season. That is long enough that there are teenagers in this valley who do not remember a Las Vegas without an NHL team. When the season starts strong, the whole town feels it. When it starts badly, you hear that too.

The team's charitable side is local too. Proceeds from the VGK Golf Classic at TPC Summerlin go to Southern Nevada organizations through the VGK Foundation. That money stays in Clark County, which is worth remembering when the season is being talked about purely as entertainment.

For families who moved here in the last few years, and there are a lot of them, VGK is often the first local thing they attach to. It gives new residents something in common with neighbors who have been here for decades. That is not a small thing in a city where so many people came from somewhere else.

Empty arena seats waiting for fans at the start of a new hockey season

Background and History

The Golden Knights reached the 2026 Stanley Cup Final and lost to the Carolina Hurricanes. That single fact shapes almost everything about this camp. A Final run means a long spring, a short summer, and a locker room that knows exactly how close it came.

The roster has already turned over in places. Rasmus Andersson signed a seven year deal worth $59.5 million in July, which is the kind of commitment a team makes when it believes its window is open right now. Andersson spoke about getting ready for camp at the VGK Golf Classic at TPC Summerlin, alongside forward Braeden Bowman.

In goal, the picture heading into the season has Carter Hart as the starter and Adin Hill as the backup. Hart started all 22 playoff games last spring. Director of Goaltending Sean Burke has run roughly a 65/35 split between starter and backup in each of the last four seasons and swaps goalies on back to backs. Vegas has only two back to backs in its first 20 games, and both are on the road.

The prospect pipeline got its own preview before camp. The VGK rookies split two games at the Rookie Faceoff in San Jose, losing a shutout to the Utah Mammoth and then winning a shootout over the Colorado Avalanche. Top prospect Trevor Connelly was boarded in the first game and did not dress on Sunday. Ben Hemmerling left the Colorado game in the first period after an open ice hit and did not return. Sixth round pick Trent Swick, a 6 foot 7 forward, posted two goals and an assist on Sunday.

Put it together and camp opens with a team that is talented, a little banged up, short on rest, and short on exhibition games. That is the honest description.

What Happens Next

Camp runs at City National Arena in Summerlin. Over the next two weeks, the coaching staff will run line combinations in practice, play four preseason games, and make cuts. Then the roster is the roster.

The things worth watching are specific. Who skates with Nic Dowd on the fourth line in practice, and does that group stay together across multiple days. Whether Marc Gatcomb holds the role he is first in line for, or whether somebody takes it from him. How Parker Wotherspoon looks in the minutes on the blue line, and which partner he ends up with.

Health is the other thread. Connelly's status after being boarded in San Jose matters, because he is the prospect most likely to push for an NHL job out of camp. Hemmerling's status matters for the same reason. Injury news during camp can flip a roster battle overnight, and in a four game preseason there is no time to re-run the competition.

Keep an eye on the goaltending workload plan too. With Carter Hart projected to carry a heavy load and only two back to backs in the first 20 games, both on the road, the schedule itself shapes how often Adin Hill plays early. Only two goaltenders in franchise history have started more than 50 games in a season, Hill in 2024-25 and Marc-Andre Fleury in 2018-19, so a heavy Hart workload would be notable on its own.

After that, the answers stop being theory. Opening night at T-Mobile Arena is when the lineup card becomes real, and all five of these questions get settled by people wearing skates instead of people writing about it.

Ryan's Take

I have sold homes to people who picked their neighborhood partly because of the drive to T-Mobile Arena on a Tuesday night. That sounds like a small thing until you have heard it three or four times. Sports teams change how people feel about where they live, and in Las Vegas the Golden Knights did that faster than anybody expected.

Summerlin is a good example. City National Arena sits in a part of the valley that already had strong demand, and the practice facility became one more reason families with kids in youth hockey want to be on that side of town. I am not going to tell you a hockey rink sets home prices. Las Vegas REALTORS reported a median sale price of $475,000 for existing single family homes sold through the MLS in August 2026, and that number moves on rates, inventory, and jobs, not on a fourth line. But lifestyle is a real part of why buyers choose one neighborhood over another, and this team is part of the lifestyle here now.

Ten seasons in, VGK is no longer the new thing. It is a fixture. That is the part I find genuinely interesting about this valley. We build traditions quickly here, because so many of us arrived recently and wanted something to belong to.

Hockey players battling along the boards during a competitive game

What You Can Do

If you want to see camp for yourself, watch the Golden Knights' official channels for the training camp schedule at City National Arena in Summerlin. Practice sessions are the cheapest way to see NHL players in this town, and the rink is small enough that you actually get a good look.

If you have kids who play, camp week is a good excuse to take them. Watching professionals run drills up close does more for a young player than another hour of highlights on a phone. City National Arena also runs youth and public skating programs, so it is a place families can use year round and not just in September.

If you are a ticket buyer, pay attention to which players win the open jobs before you plan your nights at T-Mobile Arena. Roster battles decided in camp tend to produce the players fans end up loving, because those are the guys who had to earn it.

And if you are new to the valley and still figuring out where you fit, this is an easy on ramp. Pick a player, follow the season, and by December you will have something to talk about with every neighbor on your street.

Players skating on the ice at a hockey arena during a game in front of fans

Have questions about how this affects your home or neighborhood? Reach out to Ryan Rose or text/call 702-747-5921 anytime.

Sources

Las Vegas Review-Journal, "5 questions before Vegas Golden Knights open NHL training camp." Publication date September 2026 [NOT VERIFIED, the exact publication date could not be confirmed because the article body is behind the Review-Journal's automated access block].

SinBin.vegas, "Takeaways From VGK Rookie Games In San Jose," September 14, 2026.

SinBin.vegas, "Projecting Carter Hart and Adin Hill's Goalie Rotation," September 9, 2026.

Vegas Hockey Knight, "Juho Piiparinen gets a special invitation from the Vegas Golden Knights," September 14, 2026.

KTNV 13, "Golden Knights reunite at VGK Golf Classic with unfinished business after Stanley Cup Final loss," September 8, 2026.

Nevada Business Magazine, "LVR Reports Fewer Homes Selling, and at Slightly Lower Prices," carrying the Las Vegas REALTORS August 2026 report.