Deseret News archives: Can Utah’s new hockey team replicate the Golden Knights’ first season?

Time will tell, but Las Vegas team came close to winning it all in 2018, its inaugural season

Published: June 7, 2024, 10:50 a.m. MDT

In this Monday, May 28, 2018, file photo, fans gather outside T-Mobile Arena prior to Game 1 of the NHL Stanley Cup Finals between the Vegas Golden Knights and the Washington Capitals in Las Vegas. The Vegas Golden Knights started as a lovable collection of “misfits” in their inaugural season, when they made an improbable run to the Stanley Cup Final. John Locher, Associated Press

Chris is assistant editor with the Politics and the West team, and also writes a daily Deseret News archives story.

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On June 7, 2018, the Washington Capitals claimed their first NHL title with a victory over the Vegas Golden Knights in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final in Las Vegas. Great news for Capitals fans, but the Golden Knights fans also enjoyed the thrill of a most successful inaugural season.

And in 2023, the Golden Knights did win it all, becoming one of a handful of sports franchises to win a championship early in its history.

According to research, about 90 of the approximately 125 top level sports teams — from the NHL, NBA, MLB and NFL — have won titles. Fans of the other 35 franchises (sigh, Utah Jazz fans, sigh) continue to dream of the day.

Per ESPN, the Milwaukee Bucks won an NBA title three years after the team began play in 1968, while it took the MLB’s Arizona Diamondbacks four seasons to win a World Series in 2001. It took the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens just five seasons to win a Super Bowl (2002), and took the Edmonton Oilers five seasons to claim their first Stanley Cup trophy in 1984.

The Ravens had moved from Cleveland, so the franchise was not a brand new organization, similar to how owner Ryan Smith’s NHL team is moving from Arizona to Utah.

In this May 2, 2018, photo, people watch a second-round playoff series hockey game at a Vegas Golden Knights watch party outside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The expansion Golden Knights, Las Vegas' first major sports franchise, have taken the league and their hometown by storm in their first season. | John Locher, Associated Press

Who knows what a first season will bring for Utah in its very first season of play. To tide Utah hockey fans over for another few months, here are some archived Deseret News stories about the Golden Knights’ first year:

“Capitals face Golden Knights in improbable Stanley Cup Final”

“Vegas Golden Knights make stop in Salt Lake City”

“NHL expansion team gets a name: Vegas Golden Knights”

Comments

“Photo gallery: LA Kings beat Las Vegas Golden Knights in Utah ‘Frozen Fury’ exhibition”

Oh, and season tickets for the yet-to-be-named, but soon-to-be-revered Utah hockey team went on sale today.

Hopefully on the way to the championship.

Deseret News timeline

By the way, when the Capitals defeated the Golden Knights for the Stanley Cup title in 2018, it was their first title in franchise history, which began play in 1974. Take heart, Jazz fans.

We were there: See Deseret News front pages from 45 big moments in Utah, world history

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