The Vegas Golden Knights are one loss away from being eliminated from the Western Conference Final, but the fact that the club is even in this position in Year 3 is impressive. The NHL’s newest franchise has the sixth best winning percentage in the NHL over its first three seasons, to go with two division titles and two appearances in the conference final. It’s not supposed to go that way.

Expansion teams are supposed to be slow builds, with a heavy dose of young talent acquired over years of drafting mixed with some veteran players looking for a second chance. But a quick scan of the roster the Golden Knights brought into the Edmonton bubble shows this is a team full of players in their prime ready to win.

No other expansion team has been built like this. Let’s take a deeper look at how they did it.

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