Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Dylan Coghlan made his NHL postseason debut Friday in Game 3 against the Anaheim Ducks at Honda Center, stepping into the lineup for Kaedan Korczak and skating alongside Ben Hutton on the third pairing. Coghlan finished with one shot in 16:17 of ice time.
Before the game, Coghlan said the message was simple: don’t change anything. “Play my game, be a little bit gritty,” he said, and the Golden Knights appeared to be looking for exactly that after Korczak played 11:31 in Wednesday’s Game 2 loss without a shot and finished minus-1 for the second straight game.
The decision gave Coghlan his first taste of playoff hockey in his second tour of duty with Vegas, where he once played 88 games in 2021-22 and had six goals and 19 points. He was later involved in the July 2022 trade that sent Max Pacioretty to Carolina, then appeared in 24 games over the next three seasons with the Hurricanes and Winnipeg Jets before signing a one-year deal to return to the Golden Knights.
This season, Coghlan spent most of his time in Henderson, where he scored a career-high 44 points and said he felt his game coming on as the year went along. “I think as the season went on, I was finding my game a little bit more,” he said. “I had a bit of a slow start and then picked it up halfway through.” He added that he believed he was “playing the best hockey of my career.”
Coghlan was called up from Henderson before the start of the series, and his arrival came after a short run in the Calder Cup Playoffs, where he had one assist in three games with the Silver Knights. The move also followed a blunt assessment from John Tortorella, who said he had heard “a lot of positive feedback” on Coghlan and that Korczak had “struggled a little bit in certain situations.” Tortorella added, “I don’t think he’s been terrible, but we just want a change and we’ll see where we go with it.”
Hutton said Coghlan’s shot should be a weapon. “He’s got a cannon,” Hutton said. “Any time he gets a chance to use, I’m going to tell him to do it.” He said not to worry about the D-to-D passing and added, “I’ll be going down there if there’s a rebound.” For Coghlan, the night was the payoff for a long wait. “It’s been a long time coming,” he said. “I feel like I’ve been around it a lot.” He called the moment “exciting,” and for Vegas, it may have been the first sign of a lineup change that can stick.
