Deadline raises questions for Knights

The Vegas Golden Knights benefited from improved expansion draft rules, but the veteran-laden club was still expected to be a big seller at the trade deadline Monday.

However, the league’s top team is playing with a giant chip on its shoulder and with the best homeice mark (23-5-2), the Canucks are in tough tonight in Sin City.

THE BIG MATCHUP

Horvat vs. expectations

Bo Horvat is a horse. He’s quietly having a remarkable season despite missing 18 games with an ankle fracture and is on pace for a career-high 25 goals.

His worth is accentuated by working the penalty kill in practice Thursday after not playing a second Tuesday as the Canucks gave up five power-play goals to Colorado. Horvat wasn’t on power-play practice alignments because coach Travis Green is wary of too big a workload.

1.Holm is where the hope is Philip Holm has 11 American Hockey League goals this season and as an offensive defenceman could bring what the Canucks desperately need.

He’s expected to get a power-play look on the first unit with Henrik and Daniel Sedin, Nikolay Goldobin and Brock Boeser.

2.Pick your poison with Knights It’s not one player or one line. The Golden Knights are exceeding expectations in every category.

A 40-16-4 record and league-best 23-5-2 home-ice mark are accentuated by five players scoring at least 20 goals — including William Karlsson with 31.

“I was pretty surprised out of the gate and after 20 games, but you see them now and they’re good,” said matchup centre Brandon Sutter.

3. Virtanen won’t get that PP look Jake Virtanen has teased with his skating, ability to bolt to the net off the wing and bury chances. That’s all fine and good, and when he was spotted on the second power-play unit Thursday with Sven Baertschi, Sam Gagner, Derrick Pouliot and Thomas Vanek, it raised eyebrows.

“Jake’s last game was not his best game and he needs to concentrate on what he needs to do. Don’t expect Jake on the PP,” Green said.

4.Goldobin still needs seasoning In less than a minute in the second period Tuesday, winger Nikolay Goldobin threaded a powerplay wrist shot high to the short side. And then he set up Sutter with a sweet feed for the first two-point game of his career.

You can’t teach that, but class is still in on other parts of his game.

5.Does Hutton need a trade? Ben Hutton will sit out for the 11th time in the last 27 games tonight. He wonders if a change of scenery may do him good, but there isn’t a real level of interest in the left-shot defender who has been criticized for a lack of focus.

He has but six assists in 50 games, but he’s only 24.

Still, when you lose the confidence of the coach for that long, it’s not good.