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A Vegas Cup? It Seems Quite Possible

Could this Cinderella team go all the way?

By Dominic BerningPublished 6 years ago 3 min read
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Something strange has been happening in the beautiful world of hockey. And no, I don’t mean the Capitals actually winning in the first round of the playoffs. I mean the expansion team who has a horrible name (but this is a story for later), the Vegas Golden Knights, and their amazing potential to win a Stanley cup. This has never been done by a first year franchise, might I remind you. Now, by now they only have a 3-1 series lead, but in the realm of sports that's nothing, and it can easily be busted and lost.

First we need to look at things—one of those things being the Vegas coaching staff. Now I firmly believe that all good teams start with an amazing head coach and his staff. But Vegas is not just good, they are extraordinary. Their coaching staff is perhaps one of the greatest in the sport. Gerard Gallant is an amazing coach. He may not have been the absolute best player, but he does know the game inside and out. That knowledge translates, and it resonates with this young team, showing them that they can trust their coach. Trust is huge when you are playing a sport, or doing anything, for that matter! But in the world of hockey, if you can trust your coach, you can trust who he trusts. If he trusts your teammates, then you trust your teammates and the bond only gets stronger.

I’m not saying that trust is the only reason that vegas is doing well though, just look at the way the expansion draft was set-up. It was done in way that Vegas was going to be really good.

* All players who have currently effective and continuing "No Movement" clauses at the time of the Expansion Draft (and who to decline to waive such clauses) must be protected (and will be counted toward their club's applicable protection limits).”

Here I have emboldened a very important rule from the expansion rules from 2017. So any and all players who decline to wave their no movement clause must be saved and it counts to the limited number of people a team can save. This is something that has helped Vegas acquire quite the roster, and it is something that I don't think is going to continue. If you don't know how this helps Vegas, let me explain. A team has 30 players and it wants to save some really good players, but they don't have no movement clauses. And meanwhile you have some OK players that don't want to move their clauses, and so according to the rules, they must be saved leaving your good players open to be taken. See how this helps now?

So yeah, Vegas is a good team and the rule only helped them. Another thing that helps is they were new, so their spending is super low! Like so low it barely meets the floor. And since this is the case, a possibly better Vegas team next year is really likely. Especially when you have free agents like John Tavares and Antti Niemi, James Neal, and James Van Riemsdyk. If the Knights sign some, all, or even one of these big guys, the Knights might be even better than they were this year.

So in my conclusion, I would say that a possible Vegas cup this year is possible and one for next year is extremely likely if Vegas plays their cards (pun intended) right.

hockey
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About the Creator

Dominic Berning

Im a history buff who loves sports and technology! If you want me to write you a story go ahead and tell me!

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