The Future is Now; Reflecting on What Could’ve Been
By Evan Mead
The Vegas Golden Knights have been an official team in the NHL since 2017 and things couldn’t have worked out much better for the Knights. With speculation that Vegas wouldn’t be able to make hockey work, Vegas has not just exceeded expectations but have set the bar as far as NHL experiences go.
Since becoming the 31st official team of the National Hockey League, the Knights have made one Stanley Cup appearance, have had two conference championship appearances, and had a first-round exit. Pretty good for an expansion team, but they’ve done everything right.
Knowing that they wouldn’t be satisfied with a team that takes a couple years to rebuild, the Vegas Golden Knights front office made sure to play the trade block aggressive in order to acquire superstars.
Having that philosophy has led to a lot of very good trades for the Knights. Which, is something that I’m going to be breaking down.
Knowing where the Vegas Golden Knights are at this point in time, I thought it’d be fun to reflect on just how different things could look for the Knights in different situations. If the Vegas Golden Knights would’ve made a different selection that wasn’t traded away, if the Knights wouldn’t have traded for this player, etc…
So first, let’s take a look at the Vegas Golden Knights draft selections.