The Vegas Golden Knights joined the NHL as an expansion franchise in 2017.
Six seasons later, they’re Stanley Cup champions.
The Golden Knights closed out the 2023 Stanley Cup Final on Tuesday night with a 9-3 thumping of the Florida Panthers at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Vegas’ championship triumph bookends an impressive six-year opening stretch for the franchise. The Golden Knights reached the Cup Final in their inaugural 2017-18 campaign and they made it back to the Western Conference Final two seasons later.
After missing the playoffs for the first time last season, Vegas brought in Bruce Cassidy to replace Peter DeBoer as head coach, made a major trade for Jack Eichel and went on to post a franchise-best 111 points in the regular season. The Golden Knights entered the playoffs as the top seed in the West, taking down the Winnipeg Jets in five games, the Edmonton Oilers in six and the Dallas Stars in six to book their second Cup Final trip.
The Golden Knights outscored the Panthers by a 17-9 advantage over the first four games of the series, and Vegas jumped on Florida early in Game 5.
During a Florida power play 11 minutes into the first period, Golden Knights captain Mark Stone came up with a takeaway at Vegas’ blue line and capitalized on a two-on-one break by beating Sergei Bobrovsky for a shorthanded goal.
Less than two minutes later, Vegas lit the lamp again. This time, Nicolas Hague knocked home the puck following a hectic sequence in front of the net.
The Panthers got on the board minutes into the second period as Aaron Ekblad fired a wrist shot from long range past Adin Hill.
But the Golden Knights answered back with another flurry. First, Alec Martinez scored on a wrister from the high slot with under 10 minutes left in the second.
Then, less than two minutes later, Reilly Smith slammed home a slick between-the-legs feed from William Karlsson in front of the net.
Vegas’ captain got on the scoresheet once again five minutes later as Bobrovsky couldn’t corral a wrister from Stone.
The second-period flurry ended with seconds on the clock. Michael Amadio scored on his own rebound on the doorstep to give Vegas a commanding five-goal lead.
Ivan Barbashev made it five unanswered goals for Vegas by chipping in a rebound chance on the doorstep with under 12 minutes remaining.
Sam Reinhart and Sam Bennett finally ended Florida’s scoring drought with two quick scores, but Stone put any potential for a miraculous Panthers comeback to bed with an empty-netter from deep in Vegas’ own end.
The long-distance score gave Stone the first hat trick in the Stanley Cup Final since Peter Forsberg in 1996.
This story is being updated…