The Golden Knights will see forward Brett Howden return to the lineup tomorrow against the Oilers, general manager Kelly McCrimmon told the media last night (via Sin Bin Vegas). The team still has an ample LTIR pool without him, with Alex Pietrangelo, William Karlsson, and Carter Hart all on there, so they won’t need to make a corresponding move for cap purposes.
Howden, a natural center, has primarily shifted over to the left wing during his time in Vegas. That’s changed this year, with the 27-year-old seeing more significant deployment at center in the top nine – usually between either Mark Stone and Mitch Marner or Brandon Saad and Reilly Smith. He’s likely to return down the middle after injuries to him and Karlsson have forced the Knights to make some uncomfortable deployment decisions, including shifting Marner over to serve as their second-line pivot, although they addressed that depth deficiency somewhat by picking up Nic Dowd from the Capitals before the trade deadline.
The increased responsibility in the center slot has come with fairly good results. Few expected Howden to be able to replicate his 23-goal, 40-point breakout from last season. He’d been a career 20-point guy up to that stage. His offense has regressed, sure, but maybe not as much as expected. He still churned out a 9-6–15 scoring line in 39 games before landing on the shelf with a lower-body issue back in January. He’s still averaging nearly 15 minutes per game, winning 50.6% of his draws with a -4 rating, while still having one of the better offensive showings of his eight-year career.
Howden, at 1.69 hits per game, is also one of Vegas’ more physical checking forwards. He doesn’t see a ton of penalty kill time, and certainly won’t see any more after Vegas acquired shorthanded workhorse Cole Smith from Nashville this week, but is a welcomed two-way presence lower in the lineup who should allow Marner to shift back to his natural position and lighten the load on supplemental pieces like Saad, Smith, and Keegan Kolesar, who have had to slot into Vegas’ top nine with him, Karlsson, and now Stone sidelined.