Vegas Golden Knights GM Kelly McCrimmon: ‘We feel we‘ve built our best team’

Vegas Golden Knights GM Kelly McCrimmon pulled no punches during Stanley Cup final media day on Friday.

On the eve of the team’s second Stanley Cup final appearance in their five-year history, McCrimmon said the Golden Knights’ roster today is the best ever assembled.

“No disrespect to the Year One team, but we felt we had caught lightning in a bottle,” McCrimmon said. “We feel we’ve built our best team.”

The 2022-23 season was a huge bounce-back effort for Vegas, which missed the playoffs altogether for the first time ever last year. The Golden Knights won the Pacific Division with a 51-22-9 record, with 111 points and a plus-43 goal differential. Compare that to 2017-18, where Vegas had 109 points and a plus-44 goal differential. So, statistically, the two seasons were extremely close.

But from a roster construction standpoint, it’s a much different look for Vegas than when George McPhee ran the show five seasons ago. That team was viewed as a group of misfits, trying to prove their former teams made a big mistake letting them go. They were hard-working, and while they ultimately lost to Washington, it was a noble effort.

This time, there’s a bit more high-end talent. The 2018 team was led by 78-point leading scorer William Karlsson and 75-point producer Jonathan Marchessault. They’re both still there today, and would have still been 1-2 this year. But the current roster has Jack Eichel, Mark Stone, Alex Pietrangelo and Chandler Stephenson, who has emerged in such a big way the past two seasons.

“Our goal is to win,” McCrimmon said. “Our goal is to win the Stanley Cup, that’s what we’re trying to accomplish.”

Vegas will open the Stanley Cup final against Florida on Saturday in Vegas. No matter who wins the Cup, it’ll be their first in franchise history, adding to the intrigue. That’s exactly how it was when Vegas faced Washington in 2018. But this time, they’ll hope for a much more positive result in their favor.