Dorofeyev Leads Playoffs With 9 Goals Before Avalanche Game 1
Pavel Dorofeyev enters Wednesday’s Game 1 of the Western Conference final against the Colorado Avalanche with nine playoff goals, the most in the NHL. The 25-year-old winger has turned a strong postseason into a contract-year surge, with his expiring deal set to make him a restricted free agent this summer.
Dorofeyev’s playoff run
He was still waiting for his first even-strength playoff goal in 2024 after 12 career playoff games, but that has changed fast. Dorofeyev scored the opening goal in Game 4 of Vegas’ first-round series against Utah, then followed it with his first career hat trick in Game 5.
That stretch did not stop there. He scored five goals in the last three games to help eliminate Anaheim, pushing his postseason total to nine and putting him fourth in Vegas franchise history for playoff goals in a single run.
Ivan Barbashev on the shot
Ivan Barbashev has watched the finishing touch up close. “The spot he picks,” he said. “Every time he scores, it looks like the perfect shot.” Barbashev also pointed to the home goal and the overtime touch that followed: “The one at home was just a snipe, high-blocker.”
“On the bouncing puck in overtime, too, he just places the puck perfectly.” That shot selection has shown up in the numbers as well. Dorofeyev leads the postseason with 4.8 goals scored above expected, has scored on 28.1 percent of his shots this postseason, and posted 20 power-play goals during the regular season.
Golden Knights power-play fit
Barbashev said opponents have started to take Dorofeyev away on the power play over the last two months, which has opened room for Mark Stone, Jack Eichel, Tomas Hertl, Mitch Marner, and Shea Theodore up top. That gives Vegas a more dangerous set of options, but it also puts Dorofeyev’s next contract in sharper focus as his scoring lands at the exact moment he is eligible for restricted free agency.
“He’s just a huge part of our team,” Barbashev said. For the Golden Knights, the immediate issue is not whether Dorofeyev has arrived — it is how they handle a 25-year-old winger whose playoff production now gives them a bigger decision this summer.
