Vegas Golden Knights

Team information

• Inaugural season: 2017
• Home arena: T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, Nevada
• Owner: Bill Foley
• Team colors: Steel gray, gold, red, and black

Overview

The Vegas Golden Knights are a professional hockey team based in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Golden Knights began play in the 2017–18 National Hockey League (NHL) season and made history by becoming the most successful expansion franchise in any of the four major North American sports. Led by a group of castoffs from other teams, Vegas not only won its division in its first season, but also advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals. The Golden Knights proved equally successful off the ice as well, quickly gaining a strong following in the community and selling out every game in their inaugural season. The team continued its success over the following years and made the playoffs in the 2018–19, 2019–20, and 2020–21 seasons. After missing the playoffs in 2021–22, the team put up a strong performance in the 2022–23 regular season and won its first Stanley Cup after defeating the Florida Panthers in the 2023 Stanley Cup Finals.

History

While professional hockey in North America has traditionally been associated with Canada and the northern United States, efforts to bring teams to warmer-weather cities have been ongoing since the 1960s. Prior to the Golden Knights, Las Vegas had been home to several teams at the semi-pro or minor league levels. The semi-pro Las Vegas Gamblers were the city’s first team, briefly playing there from 1968 to 1971. They were replaced by the semi-pro Las Vegas Outlaws that played in an independent league until 1973. A third semi-pro team, the Aces, played in the city for one season in the mid-1990s.

The first truly professional hockey team in Las Vegas was the Thunder, which played in the International Hockey League (IHL) from 1993 to 1999. The IHL was a minor league in which teams had developmental contracts with several NHL teams. The Thunder was affiliated with the Phoenix Coyotes. The Las Vegas Wranglers were another minor league team that played in the East Coast Hockey League (ECHL) from 2003 to 2015. The Wranglers were affiliated with the Calgary Flames, and later, the Coyotes.

During the mid-2010s, the NHL was considering expanding by two teams, from thirty to thirty-two. As prospective owners were lining up their application bids, businessperson Bill Foley joined with the Maloof family—the former owners of the NBA’s Sacramento Kings and the Palms Casino Resort—to seek a team for Las Vegas. In 2015, the league gave Foley the go-ahead to gauge community interest by organizing a season ticket drive. The effort resulted in more than thirteen thousand deposits to buy season tickets. The NHL’s decision on a new expansion team came down to Foley’s Las Vegas bid and one from Quebec City in Canada. In June 2016, the NHL awarded a Las Vegas franchise to Foley for a fee of $500 million. The Maloof family was also part of the deal as minority owners.

Foley wanted a franchise name that symbolized a powerful warrior. He considered the names Silver Knights and Desert Knights before choosing the Golden Knights. The team logo was a golden knight’s helmet with a “V” facemask design set against a black background. With the Golden Knights slated to begin play in the 2017–2018 season, Foley set high standards for his new team. He predicted that it would make the playoffs within three years and win a Stanley Cup within six.

To build the new team, the NHL held an expansion draft in which Vegas could select players from other NHL teams. While teams could protect their best players, the Golden Knights were free to choose one unprotected player from each team. As part of their team-building strategy, Golden Knights’ management sought out players whom they believed would take it personally that they had been left unprotected. Among Vegas’s key acquisitions were skaters James Neal and William Karlsson and goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury. Neal was a former All-Star with the Nashville Predators, Karlsson was a prospect with the Columbus Blue Jackets, and Fleury had won three Stanley Cups with the Pittsburgh Penguins. As coach, the team hired Gerard Gallant, a former All-Star player who previously coached with the Blue Jackets and the Florida Panthers. Gallant was known as a players’ coach with a no-nonsense reputation for honest evaluation.

The franchise played its first game on October 6, 2017, defeating the Dallas Stars on the road. After another road win, the Golden Knights returned to Las Vegas on October 10 to open their home campaign. Just nine days earlier, the city experienced a tragedy when a gunman opened fire at an outdoor concert, killing fifty-eight people. In an emotional ceremony before the game, team officials and players honored the city’s first responders and rallied the home crowd at the T-Mobile Arena. Backed by the enthusiastic home fans, the Golden Knights won their home opener, 5–2.

As the season progressed, Vegas proved their 3–0 start was no fluke. The team finished the season with the fifth-best record in the NHL, won its division with 109 points, and entered the playoffs as one of the Western Conference’s top seeds. The Golden Knights’ 51–24–7 record was by far the best mark by an expansion team in NHL history. The previous mark was 33–34–17 by the 1993–1994 Florida Panthers. In fact, no other expansion team in the history of the major North American sports—Major League Baseball, the NBA, or the NFL—had ever finished with a winning record.

Vegas’s success continued in the playoffs, as the Golden Knights breezed through the first two rounds and defeated the Winnipeg Jets in the Western Conference Finals. The series victory propelled the Golden Knights into the Stanley Cup Finals against the Washington Capitals. Vegas did win Game 1 on its home ice, but dropped the next four as Washington captured the Stanley Cup. While a previous NHL expansion team had made the Stanley Cup Finals—the St. Louis Blues in 1968—the Blues entered the league as part of a six-team expansion. That season, all the new teams were placed in the same conference, virtually ensuring that an expansion squad would make the final. The Golden Knights were the first to accomplish the feat in a fully established NHL.

The team did not match its inaugural success during the 2018–2019 season but finished with a 43–32–7 record and made the playoffs for the second consecutive year. Despite holding a 3–1 lead in the opening round series, Vegas lost the final three games to the San Jose Sharks and was eliminated. Following a four-game losing streak in January 2020, the team fired Gallant and replaced him with former San Jose coach Peter DeBoer.

A second coaching change during the 2022 off-season resulted in longtime Boston Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy, who had been abruptly fired from his prior post, taking over for DeBoer. A successful 2022–23 season saw the team finish with a winning record of 51–22–9, which earned them first place in the Pacific Division. On a post season tear, the team defeated the Winnipeg Jets, Edmonton Oilers, and Dallas Stars to earn a spot in the 2023 Stanley Cup Finals against the Florida Panthers. After going up three games to one, the Knights decisively defeated the Panthers in game five to win the franchise's first Stanley Cup.

Notable players

As an expansion team, the majority of the Golden Knights’ players accumulated most of their career accolades with other teams. When he was selected in the expansion draft, James Neal was an eleven-year veteran who scored 40 goals with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2011–2012. Neal scored 25 goals for Vegas in 2017–2018 before leaving for Calgary the following season. Jonathan Marchessault had spent time with Columbus, Tampa Bay, and Florida in his four years in the NHL. Marchessault had scored 30 goals with the Panthers in 2016–2017. In his first season with Vegas, he was one of the team’s offensive catalysts, scoring 27 goals with 48 assists.

William Karlsson had been drafted by the Anaheim Ducks in 2011 before being traded to Columbus in 2015. He fell short of his potential with Columbus and was left unprotected in the expansion draft. Karlsson blossomed in Vegas, leading the 2018–2019 squad in goals with 43 and points with 78. After the season, he was awarded the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy, the NHL’s award for sportsmanship. Karlsson set the record for most goals and most points in a season, while Marchessault set the franchise record for all-time points and all-time goals scored.

Much of the Golden Knights’ early success can be attributed to the play of Marc-Andre Fleury. He began his career with Pittsburgh in 2003 and was part of three Stanley Cup-winning teams with the Penguins. During the 2009 Stanley Cup Finals, Fleury was in net for back-to-back 2–1 victories in Games 6 and 7 to rally the Penguins to the championship. He was also part of Pittsburgh’s championship runs in 2015–2016 and 2016–2017. With Vegas, Fleury posted a goals against average (GAA) of 2.24 during its inaugural season and won 29 games. He won 35 games in 2018–2019 with a 2.51 GAA. At the time of his trade to the Chicago Blackhawks in 2021, Fleury held many of the franchise’s major goaltending records.

Bibliography

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Almasy, Steve. “Vegas Golden Knights Win First Stanley Cup in Young Franchise's History after Defeating Florida Panthers.” CNN Sports, 14 June 2023, www.cnn.com/2023/06/13/sport/nhl-vegas-golden-knights-florida-panthers-stanley-cup-spt-intl/index.html. Accessed 14 June 2023.

Kolur, Nihal. “How Did the Vegas Golden Knights Get Their Name?” Sports Illustrated, 21 May 2018, www.si.com/nhl/2018/05/21/vegas-golden-knights-name-origin. Accessed 28 Mar. 2020.

Lawless, Gary. “A Look at How the Golden Knights Got to Where They Are Today.” NHL.com, 26 May 2018, www.nhl.com/goldenknights/news/a-look-at-how-the-golden-knights-got-to-where-they-are-today/c-298800500. Accessed 28 Mar. 2020.

Lawless, Gary, and Pat Evans. “A Look Back at the Golden Knights Expansion Draft.” NHL.com, 18 June 2018, www.nhl.com/goldenknights/news/a-look-back-at-the-golden-knights-expansion-draft/c-299078842. Accessed 28 Mar. 2020.

Marrazza, Dan. “History of Hockey in Las Vegas.” NHL.com, 9 July 2016, www.hockey www.nhl.com/goldenknights/news/history-of-hockey-in-las-vegas/c-283751866. Accessed 28 Mar. 2020.

Pane, Joe, and Deke Castleman. Vegas Golden Knights: How a First-Year Expansion Team Healed Las Vegas and Shocked the Hockey World, Huntington P, 2018.

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“Vegas Golden Knights Team History.” Sports Team History, 2020, sportsteamhistory.com/vegas-golden-knights. Accessed 28 Mar. 2020.