We have been fans of and have supported the Vegas Golden Knights since the first announcement of the team. Now that the Golden Knights have swept the Los Angeles Kings in round 1 of the Stanley Cup playoffs, we wanted to take a bit to look back at how not everyone believed in the team from the get-go. Going back to the beginning of the 2017-2018 season, we can see that the newest NHL team started the season facing some skepticism.
However, the Golden Knights have surpassed all expectations this season - going 8-2 in their first 10 games and, as of last night, becoming the first expansion team to sweep its first playoff series. We now take a moment to look back on the predictions posted on The Hockey News back in October 2017.
We start with the subheader, where our team is already being called "the worst team":
THE VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS ARE THE WORST TEAM OF THE SALARY CAP ERA
Then our team's goals weren't good:
The goal seemed to be to tank and amass as many future assets as possible, with building a competitive year-1 squad merely a secondary objective.
And had a weak roster:
The Knights’ roster looks like one of the league’s weakest already, and let’s not forget this team has a truckload of pending UFAs, including Neal, Marchessault, David Perron and Jason Garrison.
And finally:
I’m betting on them to fall short of the 48-point low watermark and set the new standard for cap-era futility. And that’s not a knock on McPhee’s plan, by the way. It’s a perfectly reasonable strategy.
The article expands on this a bit more (and includes 4 other predictions for the 2017-2018 season), but we are glad our team was able to prove the nay-sayers wrong!
The Golden Knights will be facing the San Jose Sharks in round 2. Go Knights Go!
Photo: Getty Images