Golden Knights-Seattle Kraken preview: Chandler Stephenson returns | Golden Knights

Goaltender Ilya Samsonov will start for the Golden Knights as they seek their seventh win in eight games against the Seattle Kraken on Saturday.

Samsonov made his first appearance since Sunday in the Knights’ 3-2 win over the Minnesota Wild at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. The 27-year-old goaltender made 20 saves in his fourth win in five starts and improved to 7-3-1 on the season.

He will face a Seattle team that has lost four of five games and has scored eight goals in that span. Five of them came in the 5-1 win on December 12th against the Boston Bruins.

Former Knights center Chandler Stephenson will return to T-Mobile Arena for the first time since signing a seven-year deal with Seattle in the offseason.

Stephenson scored 237 points in 327 games with the Knights and was named a 2021-22 All-Star.

“Hopefully he gets a nice hand from the crowd here,” coach Bruce Cassidy said. “He had a lot of good years here and helped us win the Stanley Cup.”

The Knights will be without left wing Ivan Barbashev and center Nicolas Roy for the second straight game due to upper body injuries. They also make some changes to the lines.

Brett Howden will now be the left wing on center Tomas Hertl’s line with right wing Keegan Kolesar, moving Tanner Pearson to William Karlsson’s line with right wing Victor Olofsson.

Cassidy is relying on a fourth line that responded well in Thursday’s 3-1 win over Vancouver. Tanner Laczynski will play center and move Cole Schwindt to left wing and Alexander Holtz to right wing.

“They are a good team. They have a lot of good players and a lot of ability,” said Olofsson. “If we can eliminate their top players and play as solidly defensively as we have done here in the last few games, I think we have a good chance of winning.”

Planned lineup

Pavel Dorofeyev – Jack Eichel – Mark Stone

Brett Howden – Tomas Hertl – Keegan Kolesar

Tanner Pearson – William Karlsson – Victor Olofsson

Cole Schwindt – Tanner Laczynski – Alexander Holtz

Brayden McNabb – Shea Theodore

Noah Hanifin – Alex Pietrangelo

Nic Hague – Zach Whitecloud

Ilya Samsonov

Contact Danny Webster at [email protected]. Follow @DannyWebster21 on X.