Kevin Allen: Golden Knights: one of the most remarkable success stories in NHL history

Vegas definitely had more of an advantage than any other expansion team before them, but they still had to pick the right players in the draft, which they did. After all, no one could have envisioned William Karlsson to score 43 that year, or why Florida decided to give up on Marchessault after a 30 goal performance. Vegas could have just been an inaugural fluke, but they're not, and I think the main reason why is because as an organization they had a keen sense of scouting and acquiring players that would be cogs in their machine.

Hats off to them.

Vegas played the expansion like champs. The Kraken though I think can get off to an equally solid foundation with the flat cap and high picks.

Nice article Kevin. The management did start with some very interesting expansion and draft picks. Since then the continued build has been commendable. Foley worked hard and pushed hard to get a team in LV, what did we expect from a West Point Cadet bound and trained for excellence. Some owners should take lesson from him. Having an NHL team isn’t a HOBBY it’s a full time business especially if you want to win and show some kind of profit. The Fleury going to be traded thing, was that an old Scotty Bowman tactic? Fleury sure is responding to whatever it was. Las Vegas has become a top NHL city, the Fans are supportive and appear less critical. Of course when your winning theirs less to complain about come on let’s look at what happened to Sheilfele.
The Kraken will have their hands full following this expansion team’s success but if Seattle is well managed out of the gate there is no reason they won’t be more successful then some of the existing NHL teams, and that’s actually a shame.

It can't be stressed enough how much of an advantage these guys got with the deal they got in the expansion draft. The two teams before them, Minnesota and Columbus, were given a raw deal. In essence they only got castoffs and lower level players because teams could protect much more of their roster and had to split the pool of players two ways instead of just one team involved.

Now Columbus' lack of success also has happened because of bad management decisions made by mostly GM's (you make add whatever obvious name to this list you want), but Vegas started form a much higher level with advantages previous teams did not have.

So yes, Vegas did a good job, but if you are born with a silver spoon in your mouth life gets a lot easier than otherwise.