It took the Vegas Golden Knights six years to from inception to Stanley Cup Championship.
Golden Knights Captain Mark Stone raises the Stanley Cup – Photo by Jack Lima
Six years.
“We’re not done,” owner Bill Foley said on the ice at T-Mobile Arena on June 13 after the Golden Knights defeated the Florida Panthers 9-3 in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final to clinch their first championship.
There are teams that have not won, or challenged for a Cup in their longer history in the NHL. And there are teams that have won one Cup in nearly 90 years. We are looking at you New York Rangers.
“A lot of times when that team wins the Stanley Cup and they cross the finish line, they pretty much collapse,” general manager Kelly McCrimmon said. “And our guys were saying in jest, like, ‘Let’s go again. Who’s coming next?’ It was really a team effort.”
The Knights are about to ice the nearly identical team to last season’s winners.
Only Reilly Smith is gone, he was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins in the off season.
“We were not looking to bring anyone in from outside our organization,” McCrimmon said. “All of the decisions that we were making were on people that we just won the Stanley Cup with.
“So, by definition, that makes those decisions difficult and challenging to make, but we feel that we got our way through it and are excited about what it could mean for the makeup of our roster.”
The centers for Vegas are set for the coming opening night with Jack Eichel, Chandler Stephenson, William Karlsson, and Nicolas Roy returning.
“A short offseason makes it busy for everybody. We think we’re in pretty good shape. We lost Reilly Smith, who we liked a lot and respect a lot, and we’ll miss him. We’ve got some young guys that we have to give opportunities to. Otherwise, we’re bringing back the whole team.”
If there is a question in Vegas, it is in the net. Adin Hill had a fairy tale ending to the season. He guided the Golden Knights through the playoffs and out dueled Sergei Bobrovsky of the Florida Panthers for the Stanley Cup.
Hill seems to be the pro forma number one goalie going into the season. He will be pushed by Laurent Brossoit or Logan Thompson who were both inured last season, giving Hill his opportunity to shine.
Does Hill have a full season in him?
Will a three-headed monster patrol the Vegas crease.
“I do believe it will help goaltenders, but the goalie’s still got to go in there and stop the puck, right?” coach Bruce Cassidy said. “I just think it’s a system that shouldn’t be highly stressful night after night after night with high-danger chances. It doesn’t always work out that way, but that’s how it’s designed to be.”
Two prospects in the Golden Knights’ system are slated for Vegas this season.
Defenseman Kaedan Korczak iced for 10 games in Vegas last season with two assists. The balance of his season was in Henderson with the Silver Knights where he had four goals and 14 points.
Use CodePHN15 Vegas is the odds on favorite to repeat as Stanley Cup Champs
Forward Pavel Dorofeyev had 18 games in Vegas last season with seven goals and nine points for the effort. He also skated for the Silver Knights for 32 games, he collected nine goals and 14 points.
“Dorofeyev finished strong,” Cassidy said. “[Young players] have opportunities to push through, right? That’s usually how your organization grows and gets better, when you have internal competition, so that’ll be good.”
The Vegas Golden Knights have the core, the fringe elements, and a solid enough goaltending corps to make the run for the Cup, and succeed. We are not laying odds, but feel confident enough to make the call.
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