- Trevor Connelly put up 49 points in 46 AHL games, the best scoring pace among league rookies
- Vegas shipped Pavel Dorofeyev to the Rangers, clearing a scoring role on the wing
- Read below for full details on Connelly’s push for a Golden Knights roster spot
The Golden Knights just moved their best under-the-radar scorer, and the replacement might already be in the building.
Vegas sent Pavel Dorofeyev to the Rangers this summer and put the savings toward Rasmus Andersson’s seven-year deal. That left a hole on the wing, and Gabriel Foley of Pro Hockey Rumors pegged Trevor Connelly as the guy who fills it.
Connelly, 20, finished his first full pro season with 49 points in 46 games for AHL Henderson. No rookie in the league scored at a better clip.
He didn’t even start on time. A lower-body injury kept him out of the lineup until mid-November, and he answered with six points in his first four games.
February flipped the season. Connelly piled up 43 points over 31 games between Feb. 14 and April 24, starting with his first AHL hat trick on Feb. 20 against Abbotsford.
March belonged to him too. He hit the scoresheet in all 15 games that month, a franchise-record streak for the Silver Knights that ranked third-longest in the AHL, and the league named him its rookie of the month.
Take a look at what he did to AHL defenders last season:
His track record runs deeper than one AHL season. The Tustin, California native went 19th overall in 2024 after posting 125 points in 109 regular season games with the USHL’s Tri-City Storm, then spent a year at Providence College before signing and joining Henderson late in 2024-25.
The runway is clear. Connelly is the only first-rounder left on the Vegas depth chart outside of 2026 pick Juho Piiparinen, and the Golden Knights have no reason to rush him.
A healthy Mark Stone plus Victor Olofsson and Braeden Bowman covers the Dorofeyev minutes. That points Connelly toward a bottom-six job with second power-play unit reps to open the year.
The hurdle is NHL physicality. Connelly hit that same wall jumping to the NCAA and again in the AHL, and he got past it both times.
Clear it once more and Vegas lands a top-six winger without touching the cap.
