How the Vegas Golden Knights went from most hated to Stanley Cup champions in six years

By Sam Nestler

Modified Jun 14, 2023 15:09 GMT

The Vegas Golden Knights are the 2022-23 Stanley Cup champions. That's right. Just six years from their NHL debut, Vegas has conquered the hockey world. But how did they do it? How can a team go from brand new to the most hated team and eventually, to hockey's best?

The Vegas Golden Knights have been an atomic bomb within the expectations of an NHL expansion team. So much so that many others grew a jealous hatred of them.

Rather than sitting at the bottom of the standings for several years, or even a decade, the Knights battled their way to the Stanley Cup Final in their very first season.

Since then, they have reached the Western Conference Final three more times and took home their first title in 2023.

But they were not all good times. There were multiple coaches fired, plenty of drama surrounding their approach to the trade deadline and free agency, and the missed playoffs in a 2021-22 season that saw nearly every player miss significant time with injury.

Most notable was the Evgenii Dadonov controversy. In March 2022, the Vegas Golden Knights traded forward Dadonov to the Anaheim Ducks ahead of the trade deadline. Just hours later, the trade was canceled.

Somehow, the Knights "forgot" or purposefully ignored the no-trade clause that carried over from Dadonov's contract with the Ottawa Senators. It was embarrassing for Vegas and served as another example of what many in the hockey world believed to be "sketchy" behavior from the league's 31st club.

Then, Vegas began to fade from its identity. Rather than sticking with their list of 'B' players that worked hard and were the underdogs, the Golden Knights added superstar talents such as Mark Stone, Alex Pietrangelo, and Jack Eichel.

Many believed they were selling out from what made them successful so quickly. But then everything came together.

Eichel was fully healthy and led the team in scoring, Pietrangelo was a dominant force on the blue line, Captain Stone was the leader and produced on both ends of the ice, and the list goes on.

Vegas Golden Knights shattered expectations on their six-year journey

Because of what the Boston Bruins did in 2022-23, the regular season for the Golden Knights was wildly underrated.

Vegas shot to the top of the West early on and never relinquished that spot, finishing as the top seed. In the playoffs, Vegas did not face a single elimination game, winning in five, six, six, and five games on their way to the Stanley Cup.

So how did they do it? Belief and strategy.

While not everyone liked the approach of the Vegas Golden Knights organization, it worked. And if their fans were not happy with some of their moves along the way, you can be sure they are smiling now as Vegas has stamped its place in hockey history. Sometimes, you just have to trust the process.