Will Pavel Dorofeyev score 40 goals in 2025-26?

A young scoring threat is off to a strong pace this season, and it could lead to him reaching a significant milestone.

While we’re just a few games into the 2025-26 season, many have been surprised by the hot start from Vegas Golden Knights forward Pavel Dorofeyev. The 24-year-old has picked up right where he left off last season, which saw him post a career-high 35 goals in his first full season with the team.

In five games, the Russian winger has six goals, tied for the most in the NHL through 10 days of the young season. The question is, how long can Dorofeyev score at this pace?

Obviously, he and the Golden Knights have a long season ahead of them, but with the players around, there’s a path for Dorofeyev to reach 40 goals, a milestone only two other Golden Knights have done before.

On Friday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton discuss whether Dorofeyev has what it takes to reach 40 goals this year.

Carter Hutton: I think at this point, and the players that he gets to play with and the opportunities going to get in the finishing, he’s going to get harder matchups. That’s one thing that does come when you do pop off is, you have a big season, you’re not really fooling anybody. He’s going to be a marked man where these are, things he’s going to have to deal with. There’s going to be harder checks on him. Guys are going to make it hell when you are the checking line.

That being said, the supporting cast are such distributors and guys with [Jack] Eichel and [Mitch] Marner and the depth down this lineup. If you’re going to try to cover someone more, there’s going to be more opportunities somewhere else. So, I think he can continually grow…They’re going to get better matchups for Dorofeyev. I think he’s going to get a lot of goals this year, and there’s going to be a lot of pressure relief because of what Eichel and Marner are going to draw. 

You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…