mitch marner and VGK's Comeback Culture: Marner, Dorofeyev Fuel Late-Game Surges
A fresh statistical breakdown of the Golden Knights' season-long comeback behavior makes clear how a handful of players flip the script when Vegas is behind. Pavel Dorofeyev’s outsize scoring in trailing situations and Mitch Marner’s production while chasing deficits highlight a team that frequently must rally — and often does.
Dorofeyev’s eye-popping numbers when the club is trailing
Few figures are more striking than Pavel Dorofeyev’s total of 18 goals when his team is trailing, a mark that places him well ahead of every other scorer in that situation. Dorofeyev’s trailing goals account for 75% of his season total, and 11 of those came on the power play. Two additional trailing goals were scored with the opposing net empty. In raw minutes, Dorofeyev has produced 13 goals in 123 minutes when the Golden Knights were down and enjoying a man advantage, out of 999 total minutes of ice time this season — a concentration of production that underlines his role as a late-game finisher.
Vegas has spent a heavy chunk of game time behind on the scoreboard — more than 1, 300 minutes through 57 games — and has completed 13 comebacks, eight of them in the third period. While team-wide resilience is visible, Dorofeyev’s individual profile is a clear outlier: he has become the most potent trailing-goal threat in the league by a comfortable margin.
Mitch Marner and the core: production concentrated in comeback minutes
Mitch Marner has emerged as a major piece of Vegas’s comeback engine. He has recorded seven goals and 30 points in 467 minutes while the Golden Knights are trailing. Those totals represent 44% of his goals and 52% of his points despite those minutes comprising roughly 40% of his total ice time. That concentration shows Marner becoming particularly decisive when the team is playing catch-up: a high share of his offensive value arrives in moments when the score is not in Vegas’s favor.
Marner is not alone. Mark Stone and Tomas Hertl sit among the team leaders in points when trailing, and Jack Eichel ranks near the top in assists in those scenarios. Hertl’s numbers in empty-net, late-game work are especially notable: four goals and six points in just 28 minutes and 40 seconds of play with the goalie pulled, translating to an absurd rate when extrapolated to per-60 figures or per-game averages based on his average time on ice. Those isolated bursts suggest a lineup that shifts into a more aggressive, scoring-focused identity when down.
Roster implications and what it means for Vegas down the stretch
The Golden Knights’ reliance on comeback scoring raises several strategic questions. On one hand, having multiple elite performers who thrive while trailing — Dorofeyev’s finishing, Marner’s playmaking and Stone, Eichel and Hertl’s contributions — is a valuable asset in tight playoff series where momentum swings matter. On the other hand, consistently spending long stretches behind puts pressure on defensive systems and goaltending and invites higher-variance outcomes.
There are also contract and roster-value considerations. Players who consistently produce in high-leverage, late-game situations typically see their market stock rise, and some observers are already wondering about Dorofeyev’s long-term price tag given his unique scoring split. For the Golden Knights, balancing investments in high-upside scorers with upgrades that reduce time spent trailing will be the core roster debate heading into the trade and free-agent windows.
For now, the numbers tell a clear story: when Vegas is chasing, a small group of players flips the team into comeback mode. That identity has kept the club competitive and left opponents wary, but it also underlines a nagging vulnerability — one that the front office and coaching staff will have to address if the goal is sustained postseason dominance rather than dramatic, late-game theatrics.
