VGK Fourth Line Is Wide Open | Ryan Rose

by Ryan Rose

What Happened

Review-Journal reporter Danny Webster laid out five questions facing the Golden Knights as training camp approached. The one that stood out for anyone who watches this team closely was the fourth line. Webster reported that the wing spots beside Nic Dowd are the biggest battle in camp.

Dowd is the anchor. He is the fourth line center, and that part is settled. What is not settled is who skates on either side of him. Last season those minutes belonged to players who are no longer here.

Keegan Kolesar was traded to the Detroit Red Wings. Kolesar had been part of the Vegas organization for years and became the kind of player fans recognized by his hits, not his point totals. Cole Smith, another bottom-six option, signed with the Chicago Blackhawks. Two departures from the same line group is a lot of turnover in one offseason.

The name most likely to fill one of those spots is Marc Gatcomb. Gatcomb signed a two-year deal with Vegas on July 1, 2026. He came over after two seasons with the New York Islanders, where he scored seven points in 49 games last year. Those are not eye-popping numbers, and they are not supposed to be. Fourth line wingers are hired to forecheck, kill penalties, and keep the puck out of their own end.

Behind Gatcomb, the competition gets interesting. Three forwards who played for the Henderson Silver Knights are in the mix for the 12th and 13th forward spots on the NHL roster. Tanner Laczynski, Jonas Rondbjerg, and Kai Uchacz all have a real path to the opening night lineup.

Rondbjerg is a familiar name to longtime Vegas fans. He has been in and out of the organization's plans for several years. Laczynski brings pro experience and versatility. Uchacz is the youngest of the three and the one with the most to prove.

The 12th and 13th forward jobs matter more than the numbers suggest. Those are the players who dress when someone is hurt, who sit in the press box on healthy scratch nights, and who end up playing 40 or 50 games in a normal season because injuries happen to every team.

What makes this particular battle different is that there is no clear incumbent to beat. In a normal camp, a young player is trying to unseat somebody who already owns the job. Here the job is simply empty. Kolesar's minutes and Smith's minutes both left the building this summer, and nobody on the roster inherited them by default.

That changes how camp gets coached. When the depth chart has a hole in it, coaches run more line combinations, give longer looks to unproven players, and pay closer attention to details like faceoff support and neutral zone positioning. Every shift in September counts more than it usually does.

Empty ice rink before warmups, similar to the setting where Golden Knights training camp battles play out

Why It Matters to Las Vegas Residents

If you live in Clark County and follow this team, the fourth line is where your local connection lives. The stars get traded for and signed from other markets. The bottom of the roster is where Henderson players break through.

Tanner Laczynski, Jonas Rondbjerg, and Kai Uchacz played their home games at Lee's Family Forum in Henderson. Families in Green Valley, Anthem, and Inspirada have watched these guys up close for a fraction of what an NHL ticket costs. Seeing one of them earn a spot at T-Mobile Arena is the payoff for showing up to those Silver Knights games.

It also matters for the wallet. Silver Knights tickets are one of the better value nights out in the valley. When the pipeline actually produces NHL players, more families make the drive to Henderson, and that keeps the American Hockey League team healthy here. A healthy AHL club in Green Valley means more youth hockey exposure, more community events, and more reasons for kids in Clark County to pick up a stick.

Then there is the Kolesar factor. Fans get attached to fourth liners in a way they do not always get attached to skill players. Kolesar was a hitter, a fan favorite, and a guy who had been around for the best years in franchise history. Losing him stings even though the trade made roster sense. Whoever replaces him is walking into a job with an emotional history attached.

For the broader Las Vegas sports economy, roster battles drive interest before the games count. Preseason attendance, local radio talk, and merchandise all move when there is a story to follow. The Golden Knights have built a franchise on being the thing this city talks about in the fall, and an open competition gives people something to argue about at work.

There is a practical family angle too. Fourth line players are usually the most accessible members of any NHL roster. They show up at youth clinics, school visits, and community skates far more often than the top line does. Whoever wins these jobs is likely to be the player your kid meets at a Clark County rink event this winter.

And for anyone weighing a move to Henderson or Summerlin, this kind of story is part of what the valley now offers. Ten years ago there was no NHL team here, no AHL affiliate in Green Valley, and no reason for a hockey family to consider Southern Nevada. Today a family can watch a prospect develop 20 minutes from home and then watch him play in the NHL 20 minutes the other direction.

Background and History

The Golden Knights have always built their identity partly on the bottom six. Since the expansion season, the team has leaned on heavy, hard-forechecking lines that wear opponents down. Keegan Kolesar fit that mold as well as anyone.

Nic Dowd's role as the fourth line center is a big part of why the wings are the question and not the middle. A reliable defensive center lets a coach experiment on the wings without giving up structure. That is exactly what Vegas is doing now.

Marc Gatcomb's path is a common one. Players who put up modest offensive numbers on weaker teams often get a second look from contenders who need cheap depth. His two seasons with the New York Islanders gave him NHL games and NHL habits. Seven points in 49 games will not lead any team in scoring, but that was never the point of the signing.

The Henderson Silver Knights have existed since 2020 as the direct AHL affiliate of the Golden Knights. That relationship is unusual in pro hockey. Most NHL clubs have their farm team a plane ride away. Vegas has theirs about 20 minutes from The Fortress. Players can be recalled the same afternoon a starter gets hurt.

That proximity has shaped how Vegas builds its depth. The organization can carry fewer extra forwards on the NHL roster because reinforcements are a short drive down the 215. It also means the 12th and 13th forward battle never truly ends. A player who loses in September can win the job in December.

Jonas Rondbjerg is the clearest example of how that works. He has moved between the NHL roster and Henderson multiple times across several seasons. That kind of yo-yo career is normal for depth forwards, and it is a lot easier to manage when the two teams share a metro area instead of two time zones.

Roster turnover at the bottom is also a salary cap story. Contending teams spend heavily on their top six forwards and their top defense pair, then fill the rest of the lineup with players on low-cost contracts. Kolesar and Smith had both earned raises. Gatcomb and the Henderson group have not yet. That math is a big part of why this line looks different in 2026 than it did in 2025.

Hockey sticks and gear lined up in a locker room ahead of training camp

What Happens Next

Training camp is the next checkpoint. The Golden Knights open camp on September 16, 2026, and that is when the competition moves from speculation to actual ice time. Coaches will shuffle line combinations daily in the first week, and the pairings you see in the final practices are usually the ones that carry into the preseason.

Preseason games are the real audition. Vegas plays a four-game exhibition schedule this year, with two home dates at T-Mobile Arena on September 24 against the Utah Mammoth and September 26 against the San Jose Sharks. Fourth line candidates typically get heavy minutes in those games because the established stars sit or play limited shifts.

Watch for who gets paired with Nic Dowd late in the preseason. Coaches tend to give their preferred combination a dress rehearsal in the last exhibition game. If Marc Gatcomb is on Dowd's wing on September 26, that tells you plenty about the plan for opening night.

The regular season opens Tuesday, September 29 against the Chicago Blackhawks. That is the deadline. Whoever is in the lineup that night won the job, at least for now. Anyone who does not make it gets assigned to Henderson and waits for the phone call, which in this organization tends to come sooner than it does elsewhere.

Keep in mind that opening night is not a permanent verdict. The 2026-27 season is the first year of the NHL's 84-game schedule, which means more games, more travel, and more wear on every roster. Longer seasons historically mean more injuries, and more injuries mean more call-ups. Expect all three Henderson forwards to see NHL time at some point this year regardless of what happens in September.

Ryan's Take

I pay attention to this stuff for the same reason I pay attention to which builders are opening new phases in Skye Canyon. The headline moves get all the coverage, but the quiet depth decisions tell you what an organization actually believes about itself.

Trading Keegan Kolesar and letting Cole Smith walk says Vegas thinks it can find that same production cheaper and younger. That is a confident move. It is also a move that puts real pressure on Marc Gatcomb and on the Henderson group to be ready right now, not in two years.

From a community standpoint, I love that three of the candidates played in Henderson last season. This valley has a real hockey culture now, and it did not exist a decade ago. When a Silver Knights forward makes the opening night roster, families who bought $20 tickets at Lee's Family Forum get to say they saw him first. That is the kind of thing that turns a sports market into a sports town, and it is one more reason people who move here end up staying.

I hear it from buyers constantly. People relocating from Minnesota, Michigan, and Canada ask about ice time, youth programs, and how close they would be to a rink. Those questions were rare in Las Vegas fifteen years ago. Now they come up in almost every relocation conversation I have with a family that has kids in sports, and the answer is a lot better than most people expect.

Youth hockey player skating with a puck, representing the Clark County hockey pipeline

What You Can Do

If you want to see the competition in person, the two preseason home dates at T-Mobile Arena are your best and cheapest option. Preseason tickets are usually the lowest priced games of the year, and the fourth line candidates play the most minutes. Bring the kids. Nobody is going to care if you leave after two periods.

You can also follow the Henderson Silver Knights this season at Lee's Family Forum in Green Valley. Whoever loses this roster battle will be there, and history says at least one of them gets recalled before Christmas. Silver Knights schedules and single game tickets go on sale ahead of the AHL season, and season packages are usually available through the team.

For camp updates, the Las Vegas Review-Journal covers Golden Knights practices daily during camp week. Line combinations get posted almost every morning. If you want to know who is winning the Dowd wing job, that is where you will see it first.

If your family is new to hockey, the preseason is the easiest way in. The pace is a little slower, the crowds are smaller, and nobody expects you to know every player. Learn four or five names, pick someone to root for, and the regular season will make a lot more sense in October.

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