The Vegas Golden Knights have spent their short life making bold bets, and a few of them have changed the franchise’s entire trajectory. From the expansion draft to blockbuster trades and major free-agent swings, the team’s biggest moves have helped turn an expansion club into a group with three Stanley Cup Final appearances and a Stanley Cup.
At the top of the list sits the deal for Jack Eichel, the move that gave Vegas the kind of center it had been missing. The Golden Knights acquired him from the Buffalo Sabres, and the payoff showed up in 2023, when they won the Stanley Cup. Eichel also became the kind of player who can reshape a roster around him, setting single-season franchise records and helping lift teammates like Jonathan Marchessaut and Pavel Dorofeyev into career years.
Before Eichel, though, Vegas had already found a franchise-altering piece in the 2017 NHL Expansion Draft. With the 29th pick, the Golden Knights selected Marc-Andre Fleury after the Pittsburgh Penguins moved on to Matt Murray. Fleury gave Vegas its first Vezina Trophy winner and backstopped the team to a 2018 Stanley Cup Final run.
Another massive swing came when Mitch Marner arrived from the Toronto Maple Leafs in a sign-and-trade. Nicolas Roy went the other way, and Marner landed in Vegas on an eight-year, $96 million deal. The move has already paid off in a big way: Marner leads the NHL in postseason points with 29 and helped push the Golden Knights within two games of their second Stanley Cup.
Then there’s Alex Pietrangelo, whose seven-year, $61.6 million contract gave Vegas the kind of premier two-way defenseman it needed. The Golden Knights had Alec Martinez and his shot-blocking, but Pietrangelo brought a different level of impact. He arrived, and the franchise won its first Stanley Cup.
Those four moves stand out because they didn’t just fill holes. They changed what Vegas could be.
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Jack Eichel Changed More About Vegas Than Fans Realized
Jack Eichel has become so embedded in the Golden Knights identity that it is easy to forget how much of the franchises recent rise runs through him. The 2023 Stanley Cup team, the roster around it and even the way certain players were used all look different in a version of events where Eichel never arrives in Vegas. His presence helped shape the line combinations and the kind of top-end talent the organization could realistically chase.
Jonathan Marchessaults breakout stretch and playoff run are part of that ripple effect, and so are the broader roster decisions that came before and after. Without Eichel, Vegas might have looked more like a team still trying to solve its center problem, with fewer paths to the kind of star power that can change a summer, a trade market or the long-term direction of a contender. [Read more 🡒]
Golden Knights Just Reached The Final But Doubts Are Already Rising
Bleacher Reports latest NHL Power Rankings still have the Golden Knights near the top after their run to the Stanley Cup Final in 2025-26, but the writeup also nudged them into a different conversation. Vegas landed fourth in the rankings, a reminder that even a contender with recent hardware can draw skepticism once the calendar turns and the roster starts to show its age.
The concerns are familiar ones for a team that has built its identity on staying aggressive and adapting quickly. Analysts pointed to the Knights as one of the leagues older groups and suggested the front office may not be done tinkering, especially if it wants to keep pace with the top of the West. The organization has usually answered coaching changes with a strong response, and the bigger question now is whether it can do it again while navigating a roster that may still have more moving parts ahead. [Read more 🡒]