Las Vegas wanted the NHL. And now the city has the Stanley Cup

A month after Las Vegas was awarded an NHL team in the summer of 2016, a local paper held a series of, in the publication’s own words, “wildly unscientific” unofficial polls asking its readers to pick the franchise’s name. The Black Knights, the Knights, and the Neon Knights were all among the early choices. But only the Knights made it past the second round of voting, proving less popular than Scorpions and the eventual winner, the Outlaws. The Knights name – and variations of it – wasn’t a winner.

It is now. The Vegas Golden Knights are Stanley Cup champions, taking home the coveted trophy with a commanding 9-3 win over the Florida Panthers Tuesday evening in Las Vegas. And while the speed with which the Golden Knights have climbed to the top of the NHL has been surprising, to many (this was the franchise’s second visit to the Final in its first six years of existence) it’s exactly what team owner Bill Foley promised in 2017. It was a bold prediction, given the only other team to ever do it were the Edmonton Oilers with some kid named Wayne Gretzky.

But six years later, here we are.

MARK STONE = STANLEY CUP CHAMPION. #StanleyCup pic.twitter.com/24BMa8dfVl

We were almost here sooner. Vegas made an improbable storybook run to the Finals against the Washington Capitals in their inaugural season in 2018, only to lose the Cup on home ice. And while Vegas has remained a contender since that time, only missing the playoffs once since they joined the league, the road the team traveled wasn’t necessarily shining with glory. In their dogged pursuit of a championship, Vegas established a reputation in the NHL as a team willing to disrupt locker room cohesion, spend with almost wanton abandon, and ship off perfectly good players