Vegas Golden Knights in Toronto tickets

When the NHL awarded Las Vegas an expansion franchise by unanimous vote in June 2016, it handed the city its first major professional sports team. Owner Bill Foley's group paid a $500 million expansion fee, revealed the Vegas Golden Knights name that November, and watched a season-ticket drive pull 5,000 deposits in its first day and a half on the way to its 10,000-deposit goal. The team took the ice for the first time in 2017-18 at T-Mobile Arena, a venue on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, built as a joint venture between Anschutz Entertainment Group and MGM Resorts International.

What followed was the most successful debut season in North American expansion team history. The expansion draft landed goaltender Marc-André Fleury from the Pittsburgh Penguins and winger James Neal from the Nashville Predators, Neal scored the franchise's first two goals in a season-opening win over the Dallas Stars, and Vegas became the first team in NHL history to win eight of its first nine games in an inaugural season. The Golden Knights finished with 109 points and the Pacific Division title, the first true expansion team in the four major sports to win its division in year one. The expansion draft picks, dubbed the Golden Misfits, swept the Los Angeles Kings in the franchise's first playoff series, got past the San Jose Sharks, and downed the Winnipeg Jets in the Western Conference Final before the Washington Capitals took the Stanley Cup Final in five games. Those 13 playoff wins were the most by any team in its inaugural postseason.

The Golden Knights kept winning from there, reaching the playoffs in eight of their first nine seasons and stacking five division titles along the way. Mark Stone, acquired from the Ottawa Senators at the 2019 trade deadline, became the first captain in franchise history, Marc-André Fleury won the Vezina Trophy as the league's best goaltender in 2020-21, and after the lone playoff miss of the franchise's first nine seasons, Vegas hired Bruce Cassidy as head coach. His first team went 51-22-9 for 111 points and the top seed in the West, then rolled past the Winnipeg Jets in five games, the Edmonton Oilers in six, and the Dallas Stars in six to win the conference. In the 2023 Stanley Cup Final, the Golden Knights defeated the Florida Panthers in five games, closing it out with a 9-3 win in game 5. Vegas claimed its first Cup in season six, the fastest an expansion team had ever done it and the youngest franchise to win since the NHL's first major expansion in 1967, giving Las Vegas its first major professional sports championship on owner Bill Foley's stated timeline of playoffs in three, Cup in six.

The identity carries local meaning in every detail. Knights honors the Black Knights of the U.S. Military Academy, Foley's alma mater. Gold was the choice because Nevada is the largest gold-producing state, and Vegas is simply what locals call the city. Red in the palette nods to the Las Vegas skyline and Red Rock Canyon, the primary logo is a barbute helmet with a V-shaped opening on a black and gold shield, and the secondary mark crosses swords behind a red star that echoes the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign. Inside the arena, the pregame show often features a skating knight, and Chance, a Gila monster unveiled at the second home game in franchise history, handles mascot duty. With the Strip right outside, Golden Knights tickets come with a full Vegas night attached, a headliner with a Stanley Cup pedigree.