Presented by COMMERCIAL TIRE.
This Day In Sports…June 22, 2016, 10 years ago today:
NHL owners unanimously approve an expansion bid by Las Vegas, with the new franchise, dubbed the Vegas Golden Knights, to begin play in the 2017-18 season. What happened after that was fairly incredible. The Golden Knights made it all the way to the Stanley Cup Final their very first year, falling to the Washington Capitals in five games. Vegas returned to the Final in 2023, winning it all in just its sixth season of existence with a five-game takedown of the Florida Panthers. No expansion franchise has ever had a faster track to Lord Stanley’s Cup.
The Golden Knights were set up for success, though. In the previous NHL Expansion Draft in 2000 to stock the new Columbus and Minnesota franchises, existing teams were allowed to protect 15 players, meaning that only lower-level talent was available. In the 2017 Expansion Draft, organizations could protect a maximum of 11 players, exposing key talent. And Vegas was the only club drafting, as opposed to the two in 2000. So the Golden Knights had the pick of the litter—one from each team—and had a strong roster of 30 players at the outset.
The first home game in franchise history was played on October 10, 2017, just nine days after the tragic mass shooting at an outdoor country concert that killed 58 people. Instead of a glitzy Las Vegas-style theatrical production, the pregame ceremony focused on unity, the victims and first responders. After each Golden Knights player was announced, he skated onto the ice accompanied by a local first responder—including doctors, nurses, EMTs, firefighters, and police officers. The Golden Knights became an integral part of the city’s “Vegas Strong” healing process.
Success has been sustained, as the Golden Knights have earned playoff spots in eight of their nine seasons (including this year’s run to another Stanley Cup Final against the Carolina Hurricanes). For years, the major pro sports leagues had avoided Las Vegas due to strict anti-gambling policies and concerns for the integrity of their games. Which is kind of ironic right now, but that’s another story. Now, with Raiders having moved from Oakland in 2020 and the A’s set to arrive in 2028, the city has three of North America’s four major team sports. The NBA isn’t far behind.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
