Vegas Golden Knights
The Vegas Golden Knights reached the Stanley Cup Final in their 2017-18 debut and won the franchise's first title in 2023, a Pacific Division power.
The Vegas Golden Knights are the National Hockey League’s team in Las Vegas, and the most successful expansion franchise in the modern history of North American major professional sport. Granted to the city on June 22, 2016, and dropped into the Western Conference’s Pacific Division for the 2017-18 season, the Golden Knights did something no NHL expansion club had done since 1967-68: they reached the Stanley Cup Final in their very first year. Six seasons later they finished the job, winning the 2023 Stanley Cup. Built around a group of castoffs that fans nicknamed the “Golden Misfits,” and later around stars Mark Stone and Jack Eichel, Vegas has been a fixture at the top of the standings for its entire existence — a franchise that skipped the usual expansion growing pains entirely.
| Vitals | |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2016 (awarded); first NHL season 2017-18 |
| League / conference / division | NHL / Western / Pacific |
| Arena | T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas (opened April 6, 2016) |
| Owner | Bill Foley (Black Knight Sports & Entertainment) |
| General manager | Kelly McCrimmon |
| Head coach (Oct. 28, 2026) | Ryan Craig |
| Stanley Cups | 1 (2023) |
Expansion and the Golden Misfits (2016–2017)
Las Vegas got its team before it had a roster. The NHL’s Board of Governors approved businessman Bill Foley’s expansion bid on June 22, 2016, making the Golden Knights the first team from any of the four major North American leagues to call Las Vegas home. Foley paid a then-record $500 million expansion fee, hired George McPhee as general manager and Kelly McCrimmon as his assistant, and settled on a name and color scheme — gold, steel gray and red — that leaned into the city’s identity without kitsch.
The roster was assembled in a single night. At the 2017 NHL Expansion Draft on June 21, 2017, Vegas selected one player from each of the 30 existing franchises, and McPhee turned the exercise into an art form, extracting draft picks and prospects in exchange for taking on contracts other clubs wanted to shed. Goaltender Marc-André Fleury came from Pittsburgh, center William Karlsson from Columbus, winger Jonathan Marchessault and Reilly Smith from Florida, and veteran defenseman Deryk Engelland — a Las Vegas resident — gave the team a local face. The overlooked group soon earned the affectionate nickname the “Golden Misfits.”
The franchise’s identity was forged by tragedy before it ever played a game. On October 1, 2017, a gunman killed 58 people at a music festival on the Las Vegas Strip, days before the team’s home opener. The Golden Knights folded the city’s grief into their debut, and on March 31, 2018 they raised a black-and-gold “Vegas Strong” banner and retired the number 58 in honor of the victims. The club has positioned itself as a civic institution ever since.
The inaugural run and the 2018 Cup Final (2017–18)
No expansion team had ever started like this. Under first-year head coach Gerard Gallant, Vegas won its first game in franchise history 2-1 at the Dallas Stars on October 6, 2017, with James Neal scoring both goals, and never stopped. Karlsson erupted for 43 goals, Fleury was a wall, and the Golden Knights finished 51-24-7 for 109 points, first in the Pacific Division. Gallant won the Jack Adams Award as coach of the year.
The playoff run turned disbelief into a parade route. Vegas swept the Los Angeles Kings in the first round, dispatched the San Jose Sharks in six, and ended the Winnipeg Jets in five to win the Clarence S. Campbell Bowl as Western Conference champions. In the 2018 Stanley Cup Final, the Golden Knights took Game 1 before Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals won four straight to take the series 4-1. The loss stung, but reaching the Final as a first-year team remains the defining achievement of the franchise’s opening act.
The Gallant years and early playoff heartbreak (2018–2020)
Vegas doubled down on contention rather than coasting on the fairy tale. The 2018-19 club went 43-32-7 but ran into one of the great collapses in playoff memory, blowing a 3-1 series lead and then a late Game 7 lead to the San Jose Sharks, who scored four power-play goals during a controversial five-minute major to erase a three-goal third period. At the February 2019 trade deadline McPhee had already made the move that reshaped the franchise, acquiring winger Mark Stone from the Ottawa Senators and signing him to an eight-year extension.
A coaching change mid-stream did nothing to slow the team down. Gallant was dismissed in January 2020 and replaced by Peter DeBoer, and Vegas finished first in the Pacific again. Inside the pandemic “bubble” that completed the 2019-20 season, the Golden Knights advanced to the Western Conference Final before falling to the Dallas Stars in five games — a third straight deep playoff run that still ended short of the Final.
The DeBoer era: back-to-back semifinals (2020–2022)
The near-misses kept piling up. In the pandemic-realigned 2020-21 season, Vegas posted a 40-14-2 record that tied the Colorado Avalanche for the league’s best points percentage, though Colorado finished ahead on the regulation-wins tiebreaker to claim the 2020-21 Presidents’ Trophy, leaving Vegas second in the temporary West Division. The Golden Knights reached the semifinal round only to be beaten by the underdog Montreal Canadiens in six games. The franchise had now reached at least the conference-final round three times in four seasons without winning a title.
The Eichel gamble raised the ceiling and the stakes. One month into the 2021-22 season, McCrimmon — by then promoted to general manager — acquired center Jack Eichel from the Buffalo Sabres in exchange for Alex Tuch, Peyton Krebs and draft capital, a deal that hinged on a disputed neck surgery Eichel wanted and Buffalo had resisted. Injuries piled up around the move, and the Golden Knights finished 43-31-8 and missed the playoffs for the first time in franchise history. DeBoer was fired.
Cassidy and the 2023 Stanley Cup (2022–2023)
Bruce Cassidy arrived from Boston and finished what the Misfits started. Hired on June 14, 2022, Cassidy tightened the defensive structure, and a healthy Eichel paired with the enduring Misfits core produced a 51-22-9 season and a franchise-record 111 points, first in the Pacific.
The 2023 run was a clinic. Vegas beat the Winnipeg Jets in five, the Edmonton Oilers in six, and the Dallas Stars in six to reach the Final, where goaltender Adin Hill emerged as a postseason revelation. In the 2023 Stanley Cup Final the Golden Knights overwhelmed the Florida Panthers, closing out the series 4-1 with a 9-3 rout in Game 5 at T-Mobile Arena on June 13, 2023. Jonathan Marchessault — an original Golden Knight and undrafted free agent years earlier — won the Conn Smythe Trophy with 25 points in 22 games, becoming the first undrafted player to win it since Wayne Gretzky in 1988. Vegas had its championship in just its sixth season of existence.
After the crown: the 2026 Final run (2023–2026)
Defending the title proved harder than winning it. The 2023-24 Golden Knights went 45-29-8 and were bounced in the first round, while the 2024-25 club rebounded to a 50-22-10 season and 110 points, another Pacific title, before falling in the second round.
The 2025-26 season became the strangest chapter yet. With the team slumping at 32-26-16 and sitting third in the division, Vegas fired Cassidy on March 29, 2026 and handed the bench to veteran John Tortorella on a short-term arrangement with eight games to play. The Golden Knights won seven of those eight, closed the regular season 39-26-17 atop the Pacific, and then tore through the Western bracket — surviving a first-round deficit, beating the Anaheim Ducks in the second round and sweeping the Colorado Avalanche in the conference final — to reach the 2026 Stanley Cup Final. There the Carolina Hurricanes beat them in six games, 4-2 in the series. Tortorella, who had always framed the job as temporary, did not return; the team announced on June 16, 2026 that he was out.
The Ryan Craig era (2026– )
The franchise promoted from within. Vegas named Ryan Craig head coach ahead of the 2026-27 season. Craig had been part of the organization since its inaugural 2017-18 campaign, serving as an NHL assistant and then coaching the AHL affiliate in Henderson for three seasons, and was on staff for the 2023 championship. The Golden Knights opened the 2026-27 season 9-4-1 through October 27, 2026, second in the Pacific behind the Edmonton Oilers, with Mark Stone still wearing the captain’s “C” he was given before the 2020-21 season.
Retired numbers
The Golden Knights have not retired any player’s number as of October 28, 2026. The lone number out of circulation honors not a player but the city: No. 58, raised to the rafters with a “Vegas Strong” banner on March 31, 2018 to represent the 58 people killed in the October 1, 2017 shooting on the Las Vegas Strip.
| No. | Honoree | Pos. | Note | Retired |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 58 | Vegas Strong (shooting victims) | — | Community banner, not a player | Mar. 31, 2018 |
Season by season
Every season in franchise history, folded by decade, newest first.
The 2020s 277–148–55 · 5 playoff berths · 1 Stanley Cup · 2 Finals
| Season | W–L–OTL | Finish | Playoffs |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-27 | 9-4-1 | 2nd (Pacific) | In progress |
| 2025-26 | 39-26-17 | 1st (Pacific) | Lost Stanley Cup Final (CAR 2-4) |
| 2024-25 | 50-22-10 | 1st (Pacific) | Lost second round |
| 2023-24 | 45-29-8 | 4th (Pacific) | Lost first round |
| 2022-23 | 51-22-9 | 1st (Pacific) | Won Stanley Cup (FLA 4-1) |
| 2021-22 | 43-31-8 | 4th (Pacific) | Did not qualify |
| 2020-21 | 40-14-2 | 2nd (West Division) | Lost semifinal (MTL 2-4) |
The 2010s 133–80–22 · 3 playoff berths · 1 Finals
| Season | W–L–OTL | Finish | Playoffs |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-20 | 39-24-8 | 1st (Pacific) | Lost conference final (DAL 1-4) |
| 2018-19 | 43-32-7 | 3rd (Pacific) | Lost first round (SJS 3-4) |
| 2017-18 | 51-24-7 | 1st (Pacific) | Lost Stanley Cup Final (WSH 1-4) |
By the numbers
Franchise marks
Ranks
- 1st Regular-season points percentage, all NHL teams since the 2017-18 season
- 2nd Fewest seasons to a first Stanley Cup, NHL expansion era (6, behind the Oilers)
- 1st First expansion team to reach the Cup Final in its debut season since the 1967-68 Blues
Honors
- 2023 Stanley Cup champions
- 3× Western Conference champions (2018, 2023, 2026)
- 5× Pacific Division regular-season titles (2018, 2020, 2023, 2025, 2026)
- 2023 Conn Smythe Trophy (Jonathan Marchessault)
- 2018 Jack Adams Award (Gerard Gallant)
- All-time leaders: Marchessault 417 points, 192 goals
Per Hockey-Reference and the NHL, through Oct. 27, 2026.
The arguments
Was the Misfits’ instant success a fluke, a loophole, or a blueprint? Critics argued Vegas benefited from the most generous expansion-draft rules in league history and from opponents underestimating a first-year team, and that the 2017-18 Final run was unrepeatable lightning. Supporters counter that the franchise has stayed elite for a decade — best points percentage in the NHL since it entered the league, per league and reference records — which no fluke could sustain, and that McPhee’s deadline and expansion maneuvering was skill, not luck.
Was the Jack Eichel trade worth it? One side points to the 2023 Cup as vindication: Vegas gave up Alex Tuch, Peyton Krebs and picks, bet on a surgery other teams wouldn’t sanction, and won a championship with Eichel as its top center. The other notes the cost in young, cost-controlled talent and the salary-cap gymnastics the front office has used to keep the roster together, a recurring source of league scrutiny.
Is Vegas a model expansion franchise or a product of its market’s spending power? Admirers call the Golden Knights proof that an expansion team can be built to win immediately and stay there. Skeptics argue Foley’s willingness to spend to the cap, absorb bad contracts and churn the roster is a resource advantage not every market enjoys, and that the “Misfits” branding obscures an aggressive, big-budget operation.
Why it matters
The Vegas Golden Knights rewrote the expansion playbook. Where new teams were expected to lose for years, Vegas reached the Stanley Cup Final in its first season, stayed among the league’s best every year after, and won a championship in its sixth — then returned to the Final again in 2026. For a city that had never held a major pro franchise, the Golden Knights became an overnight institution, bound to Las Vegas by the “Vegas Strong” banner as much as by the Cup. Whatever the debates about how they were built, the record answers the only question most fans ask: Vegas won its first Stanley Cup in 2023, faster than almost any franchise ever has.
Sources: Wikipedia — Vegas Golden Knights, ESPN — NHL welcomes Vegas Golden Knights, Wikipedia — 2017–18 Vegas Golden Knights season
