Expansion teams are supposed to be awful their inaugural season, but do not tell Vegas that. (Source: David Lipnowski – Getty Images)
Most people who have picked up a sports video game have inevitably tried out whatever is defined as the Franchise Mode of that particular game. Whether it is to make your favorite team become the perennial powerhouse, take your most hated team and make them suffer from however long you feel is necessary punishment, or you simply wish to make a team from scratch and build them into a juggernaut capable of competing with the already established teams. Taking that approach and applying it to real life is an entirely different behemoth of a task, but do not tell George McPhee, the general manager of the Vegas Golden Knights how difficult it can be. The Golden Knights were once ridiculed for having a generic sounding team nickname, a nickname that those Franchise Modes offer as an option if you cannot think of a good name yourself. Now, they took the National Hockey League by storm and ran through the Western Conference to clinch a spot in the Stanley Cup Finals in their inaugural season.
George McPhee, the architect of the Western Conference champion Vegas Golden Knights (Source: Benjamin Hager – Las Vegas Review)
McPhee started out assisting the Vancouver Canucks before joining the Washington Capitals in 1997, becoming the general manager for a franchise that was mired in postseason failure despite their regular season success. With McPhee as their GM, the Capitals made it all the way to the 1998 Stanley Cup Finals, the first appearance for Washington. The Caps remained competitive under McPhee and 2004 saw the drafting of possibly the most important player in franchise history, Russian superstar Alexander Ovechkin. However, the past failures in the postseason returned to haunt Washington, and McPhee ended up getting fired at the end of the 2013-14 season. After a brief stint with the New York Islanders, he found himself in charge of the Golden Knights and he is now a finalist for the NHL General Manager of the Year Award, so McPhee’s ability to build a competitive hockey team is still there.
There still needed to be a group of players for Vegas to field on the ice, and the NHL hosted the Expansion Draft in order to make that happen. The NHL also wanted to make sure that the Golden Knights could stand a better chance against the already established franchises, so the amount of protected players for each team was lower than the 2000 Expansion Draft, the last time the NHL held such a draft. That notion of wanting a more competitive expansion team could provide fuel for naysayers to argue that what Vegas has accomplished is not as impressive as what others may believe. Nevertheless, the Knights added players like Jonathan Marchessault from the Florida Panthers, William Karlsson from the Columbus Blue Jackets, and Tomas Nosek from the Detroit Red Wings. However, the player that was chosen that got the most attention was selecting goaltender Marc-André Fleury from the defending two-time Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins. Fleury was the Penguins’ #1 overall selection all the way back in 2003, but were dealing with a dilemma due to up-and-comer Matt Murray being a major catalyst in helping Pittsburgh win those Cups. Vegas saw the opportunity to have a proven winner behind the net, so they called the Penguins’ bluff and chose Fleury with the second to last pick in the Expansion Draft.
Three of the main sources of success for the Golden Knights: #29 Marc-André Fleury (Bruce Bennett/Getty Images), #71 William Karlsson (David Becker/National Hockey League Imaging via Getty Images), and #81 Jonathan Marchessault (Jeff Bottari/National Hockey League Imaging via Getty Images)
All of these castaways and unknowns were united together under former Florida Panthers coach Gerard Gallant, who helped guide Florida to their best record in their young franchise history two seasons ago when they won 47 games and made the playoffs for the fifth time ever. However, these improvements were not good enough for the owner of the team, who fired Gallant 22 games into the following season. Vegas saw the potential to make something special, so they hired Gallant as their first coach. The end results were astonishing, as Vegas had quite possibly the most successful inaugural seasons for an American professional sports franchise. The Golden Knights finished as one of only five teams to win 50 or more games and, as of this post, are 13-3 in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Karlsson scored a team high 43 goals despite having scoring only 18 goals prior to this season. Marchessault, ironically a former Florida Panther who played under Gallant for a brief time in 2016-17, became Karlsson’s partner in crime and has provided many clutch opportunities for Vegas. Fleury has rediscovered the brilliance that made him a juggernaut in Pittsburgh, roaming behind the net once again for a Stanley Cup hopeful squad.
Yes, I am aware that hockey is not the de facto leader in viewers when it comes to American audiences. I can be included in that group of people since I am not as passionate about hockey when compared to the other major sports. However, the Stanley Cup Playoffs offer something more than the other postseasons can offer, at least in my own opinion. There have been four instances of a team coming back from a 3-0 deficient to win their respective series, the most recent being the Los Angeles Kings in 2014. The 2012 playoffs saw those same Kings become the first #8 seed to win a championship in American professional sports history and they went 16-4 in those playoffs, so they got hot at the exact right moment in time. Add in the fact that this year’s edition features these Golden Knights and the Washington Capitals, the very team that McPhee’s fingerprints are all over, fighting for their first Stanley Cup ever and that should be another great storyline. Besides, that kind of parity is a lot better than another championship that is featuring the same two teams again for the fourth consecutive season.
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