Six lessons Seattle franchise can learn from the Vegas Golden Knights

It won’t be long before the Vegas Golden Knights see their new boys tag in the NHL disappear with Seattle gearing up for their own hockey franchise.

The Vegas Golden Knights have been the story of the NHL since entering the league in 2017, weaving a fairytale story fit for Hollywood and winning plaudits from hockey fans all over the world after making a magical run to the Stanley Cup Final in their inaugural year.

However, they will have to take a backseat in 2021-22 when Seattle will become the NHL’s 32nd and newest franchise after being approved unanimously by the National Hockey League’s Board of Governors back on Dec, 4, 2018.

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Although they have yet to come up with a name for the franchise, or set the organization’s identity with team colors etc, the appetite for hockey in Seattle is real with fans snapping up Season Tickets at such a rate that the franchise met the NHL’s 10,000 Season Ticket deposit in just 12 minutes, which is a pretty remarkable feat in itself.

Seattle does, however, now have a General Manager after announcing the appointment of Ron Francis as the first-ever GM in franchise history last week. Francis is a name that needs no introduction to hockey fans, of course, having carved out an illustrious career in the NHL. He is in the upper echelons of hockey greats and his reputation should speak for itself when building a franchise from the ground floor up.

He was of course the first-ever First-ballot Hall of Famer in 2007, along with other hockey gods in the ilk of Mark Messier, Al MacInnis and Scott Stevens. Not only that but Francis is 5th all-time in scoring with 1,798 points, he is a three-time winner of the Lady Byng Trophy (1995, 1998, 2002), he was crowned the winner of the Selke Trophy in 1995 and he spent 14 seasons as a team captain in the NHL.

Now entering the next chapter of a career that also included a stint as General Manager of the Carolina Hurricanes, Francis will be charged with building the Seattle franchise from scratch, before ultimately constructing and crafting a roster in his own image, a team that will carry the aim of being competitive in the NHL from the very get-go.

Vegas bucked the trend for expansion teams in regards to success in the early years and, while it might be a stretch to think that Seattle could reach the Stanley Cup in their inaugural year like the Knights, we’ve mapped out a handful of lessons they could learn from the Golden Knights as they begin to put the pieces in place for the NHL’s 32nd franchise…