Expansion team to Stanley Cup within six years
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2023 Stanley Cup Finals - Game 5
2023 Stanley Cup Finals - Game 5
Since 1991, there have been eleven expansion NHL teams, with only two winning a Stanley Cup. The Tampa Bay Lightning won the 2004 Stanley Cup after joining the league in 1992, and the Anaheim Mighty Ducks won the 2007 Cup after joining in 1993. Expansion teams usually don't do well in their first few seasons after joining due to having to build a roster from scratch. When the Las Vegas Golden Knights joined in 2017, they shocked everyone by making it to the Stanley Cup Finals in their inaugural season, becoming the second-ever expansion team besides the St. Louis Blues in 1968 to do so.
The Golden Knights were so good due to shrewd trades and expansion draft picks; also, a change in the number of the players NHL teams could protect from expansion teams helped. The Knights would make the playoffs the next three years before missing out during the 2021-22 season.
However, Las Vegas would return with a vengeance, making the Stanley Cup Finals the following year and, this time, winning. They would become the second-fast expansion team to do so, behind the Edmonton Oilers, who won it in five seasons. Although the Edmonton Oilers were, in a way, not a true expansion team, they did not have to build completely from scratch as they came from a competing league, WHA, and could keep a player named Wayne Gretzky.
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References
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Which NHL team should win the 2023 Conned Smythe for the worst Golden Knights trade?
Which brings us to this year: the Vegas Golden Knights, and what might be the most fiercely contested Conned Smythe race of all time. Most winners have had at least a few candidates, but the Knights are stacked with them.
The Athletic
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Golden Knights win first Stanley Cup in franchise history, defeat Panthers in Game 5: How Vegas broke through
Now, after six years as a contender and four trips to at least the conference finals, the Golden Knights break through as champions.
The Athletic
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The success of expansions teams throughout NHL History
Expansion teams throughout NHL history have struggled off the bat. But the Seattle Kraken and Vegas Golden Knights certainly have rewritten that narrative.
Fansided
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Going all in — 5 years later, after bold moves, Golden Knights are back in Stanley Cup Final
That inaugural season was magical up until the very end when the team fell just short of its ultimate goal. Five years later the team looks very different, but the Golden Knights are back.
The Athletic
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From six teams to 31: History of NHL expansion
2016: NHL commissioner Gary Bettman announces the addition of a franchise in Las Vegas that will begin play in the 2017-18 season, bringing the NHL to 31 teams. It is the first major professional sports team in Las Vegas.
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