The Stanley Cup race has been winnowed to four teams. The Carolina Hurricanes will face the Florida Panthers in the Eastern Conference Final (Game 1 goes Thursday) as the Vegas Golden Knights square off with the Dallas Stars for Western supremacy (series starts Friday). Expect these key players, two per squad, to influence who emerges from Round 3.

 

Jonathan Marchessault

Marchessault, the Golden Knights' franchise leader in goals and points, didn't score for seven games to open the playoffs, despite firing 23 pucks on net.

Bound to get rewarded, he bagged five goals on 23 shots over the next four outings. Marchessault's natural hat trick in the Round 2 clincher, which extinguished the Edmonton Oilers, showcased his wicked release and willingness to storm the crease.

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Every Vegas forward line can attack with speed, strike off the cycle, and expose the opposing defense's vulnerabilities. The top trio – Jack Eichel between Marchessault and Ivan Barbashev – is the tip of the spear. Edmonton got outscored 7-1 in this combo's five-on-five shifts, according to Natural Stat Trick. Marchessault leads Vegas and ranks in the top 10 league-wide in slot shots, scoring chances off the rush, and individual expected goals.

Marchessault is one of six holdovers from the Golden Misfits expansion team that stunned the sport by surging to the 2018 Cup Final. He's delivered six multi-goal efforts in the playoffs since that year, the third-most in the NHL in the span, per Stathead. The chances he generates and finishes might lift Vegas to victory in another monumental game.

 

Adin Hill

Laurent Brossoit's injury could have sunk Vegas last round. Instead, the opposite happened.

Hill – one of five netminders the Golden Knights have deployed in 2022-23 – replaced Brossoit partway through Game 3 and sparkled from that moment onward. Hill recorded a .934 save percentage against Edmonton, and he stopped 5.56 goals above expected, per Evolving Hockey.

The former Arizona Coyotes and San Jose Sharks backup compiled a .915 save percentage over 27 appearances for Vegas in the regular season. Shelved in March with a lower-body ailment, the Oilers series was Hill's first action in two months. He celebrated his 27th birthday last week by starting in the playoffs for the first time.

Logan Thompson remains out with a lower-body injury. Jonathan Quick, the aging former Conn Smythe Trophy winner, was one of the NHL's shakiest goalies this season. Despite his inexperience, Hill is the Golden Knights' best healthy option. They can win the West if his sterling play persists.