Golden Knights at 10: how the Misfits built Vegas, and Season X so far

With 2:44 left in the third period in Dallas, James Neal lifted the puck over Kari Lehtonen from his knees. It was the first game the Vegas Golden Knights ever played, and that goal beat the Stars 2-1.

Neal had already scored the first goal in franchise history earlier that period. Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 45 of 46 shots. The roster was built from players other teams had left unprotected, and the outside expectation was a lottery team.

Nine years later, Vegas is in its 10th season. The team calls it Season X. The Golden Knights sit at 8-2-0 heading into Tuesday's home game against Tampa Bay, and three players from that first roster are still wearing the jersey. This is how a team of castoffs reached three Stanley Cup Finals in nine seasons.

The week everything meant more

That opener in Dallas came five days after the Oct. 1, 2017 shooting in Las Vegas that killed 58 people. Before the anthem, the Stars lined up alongside the Golden Knights.

The home opener came on Oct. 10, 2017, against Arizona. Before puck drop, the building fell silent for 58 seconds while each victim's name glowed in gold across the ice. The dasher boards carried no ads, only two words: Vegas Strong.

Deryk Engelland was picked by his teammates to speak to the crowd. He had lived in Las Vegas since playing minor league hockey there, and he told the 18,191 fans in the building that he was proud to call the city home. He finished with four words: "We are Vegas Strong."

Then the hockey started, and it did not look like an expansion team. Tomas Nosek scored 2:31 in for the first home goal in franchise history. Engelland, of all people, scored the next one. Neal scored twice, and Vegas led 4-0 before the 11-minute mark of the first period. The final was 5-2. The Golden Knights became the first team in NHL history to open its debut season with three straight wins.

The Golden Misfits

The roster came out of the expansion draft on June 21, 2017: 30 players, one from each existing team. Pittsburgh left Fleury, a three-time Stanley Cup winner, unprotected after he lost the starting job during the previous playoffs. To make sure Vegas picked William Karlsson, Columbus attached a first-rounder in 2017, a second-rounder in 2019 and injured forward David Clarkson.

Neal jokingly called the group the "Golden Misfits." The nickname became a rallying cry.

• Karlsson scored 43 goals, third in the NHL behind Alex Ovechkin (49) and Patrik Laine (44), and won the Lady Byng Trophy.
• Jonathan Marchessault put up 75 points.
• Fleury won 29 games with a .927 save percentage.
• Vegas went 51-24-7 for 109 points and won the Pacific Division. No other modern-era expansion team in the four major sports had won its division in its first season.

The playoffs kept going. Vegas swept Los Angeles, something no NHL team had done in its first playoff series of a debut season. Then it beat San Jose in six and Winnipeg in five. In the Stanley Cup Final, the Golden Knights won Game 1 at home 6-4 against Washington. Then the Capitals won four straight. Lars Eller scored with 7:37 left in Game 5 to win it 4-3 and hand Washington its first Cup.

From one Final to three

The Misfits did not go away. In 2023, Vegas beat Florida in five games for its first Stanley Cup. The clincher was a 9-3 blowout at T-Mobile Arena with a Mark Stone hat trick, and the nine goals tied a Stanley Cup Final record. Coach Bruce Cassidy started five of the original players that night and sent the sixth out on the second shift.

Last season brought a third trip to the Final. Vegas went 39-26-17, won its fifth Pacific title and its third Western Conference championship, then lost to Carolina in six games. Game 6 was a 3-0 Hurricanes shutout in Las Vegas.

Now the originals are down to three. Karlsson, Shea Theodore and Brayden McNabb all entered their 10th season with the team. Behind the bench is a new head coach, Ryan Craig, who arrived after three seasons with the AHL's Henderson Silver Knights.

Season X, so far

The team dedicated its Oct. 10 home game to the first season. It billed the night as Welcome to Impossible Knight, lined up Neal, Engelland, Ryan Reaves, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and first coach Gerard Gallant for a pregame Fan Fest, and announced it as the last game in the inaugural gray jerseys. Vegas beat the Kings 2-1 in overtime on a Mitch Marner power-play goal, and Carter Hart stopped 26 of 27 shots.

Two nights before that, Vegas fell behind Toronto 3-0 in the first period and came back to win 4-3 in a shootout.

Since a 4-2 loss in Minnesota a week ago, Vegas has won three straight. It won 5-2 in Nashville, then beat Calgary 6-2 behind a Stone hat trick in the third period, then beat Pittsburgh 6-2 on Saturday. In that Pittsburgh game, Theodore scored with McNabb picking up an assist, and Karlsson set up Brett Howden late. Ten seasons in, the Misfits are still on the scoresheet together.

The stars are doing the heavy lifting. Jack Eichel has 18 points (5 goals, 13 assists) in 10 games and has passed 700 career points. Stone has 7 goals and 14 points. Marner has 11 points.

What it means on the board

Tampa Bay comes to Vegas on Tuesday at 6-2-0, though the Lightning are 1-2-0 on the road. A few things from this story are worth tracking in the markets we post.

• Eichel has 28 shots on goal in 10 games, and he has assisted on Stone goals against Toronto and Calgary. Points and shots-on-goal props for those two are the kind of market this shows up in.
• Vegas has scored five or more goals in five of its 10 games, including 6 in each of its last two at home. That is context for team totals and the game total, and Tampa Bay is 6-2-0 for a reason.
• Hart has played six games and Adin Hill four. Saves props and the moneyline both depend on who starts, so wait for the confirmed goalie before reading too much into either.

The board updates as lines move and goalies are confirmed. Check the NHL board and free picks, read how Saturday's game played out in the Penguins vs. Golden Knights recap, or brush up on how a player prop works.

21+. Research and commentary, not betting advice.