After what turned out to be his penultimate game as head coach of the Vegas Golden Knights in late March, Bruce Cassidy was asked if he allowed himself to look ahead to his team’s Stanley Cup playoffs potential.
Cassidy responded emphatically that no, the Golden Knights had not played well enough for that to be a consideration.
“We’re just trying to get our game together and get in (the playoffs),” he said. “It’s been a battle for us.”
“Battle” remains an accurate depiction of most of the Golden Knights’ 2025-2026 campaign, where they set a franchise record with 43 combined regulation and overtime losses in the regular season.
Mark Stone
Expectations had arguably never been higher coming into a season as Vegas shot up as high as the second favorite to win the Cup last summer after landing the best available player, Mitch Marner, via sign-and-trade with Toronto. But it continually failed to live up to those standards from a win-loss perspective.
While the Golden Knights’ underlying metrics remained strong, they endured several offensive slumps and suffered through atrocious goaltending play to flirt with not even making the postseason. Everything kept failing to come together at once.
Until now.
The inconsistency cost Cassidy his job less than three years after winning the Stanley Cup but the controversial move now looks like the right one with the Golden Knights surging under replacement John Tortorella.
They’ve gone 19-5 overall under the longtime NHL veteran coach, including 12-4 in the playoffs capped by the most impressive series win in franchise history. Vegas swept the President’s Trophy-winning Colorado Avalanche in the Western Conference Final to reach the 2026 Stanley Cup Final against the Carolina Hurricanes, which started June 2 on the road.
“This team activated themselves, let’s get that straight,” Tortorella said. “Coaches, our job is to get rid of the obstacles in front of them so they can go play, but this team activated itself. It’s a group that understands.”
Vegas arrived at its third-ever Stanley Cup Final after the Tortorella-guided tear, tying the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning for most Cup appearances since it joined the league in 2017. Now the Golden Knights look to match those two clubs with a second championship.
They already passed the Lightning for most playoff wins, 74, and series victories, 15, earlier this postseason.
The path wasn’t as smooth as in the inaugural season in 2017-2018—when the Knights ultimately lost to the Washington Capitals in five games—or in the triumphant 2022-2023 run, when they dispatched the Panthers in five games—but in some ways that’s made this year all the more memorable.
“It’s been a long season for us,” top defenseman Shea Theodore said when asked what differentiates this Stanley Cup trip. “A lot of ups and downs and some changes in the middle of it, but it’s exciting to be back.”
Of the 20 players in the Golden Knights’ projected 2026 Stanley Cup active lineup, Theodore is one of three to have appeared in all three franchise championship series. His defensive pairing partner Brayden McNabb and second-line center William Karlsson are the others.
Reilly Smith also remains on the roster but hasn’t been active for a game since a first-round win over the Utah Mammoth.
Six more players remain holdovers solely from the 2023 championship team, including captain Mark Stone and alternate captain/highest-paid player Jack Eichel. The others are current playoff co-leading goal scorer Brett Howden, Eichel’s linemate Ivan Barbashev, enforcer Keegan Kolesar and current backup goalie Adin Hill.
“Every team is different and I think every season and game has its own story,” Eichel said. “With that being said, I think you can take the experience you’ve had playing big games in the past. Obviously, a lot of guys were here in ’23 for that run and there are guys in the locker room that have played in big games in other scenarios. I think you draw from those.”
The Golden Knights have a lot more big-game pedigree to draw upon than the Hurricanes, though current coach Rod Brind’Amour was the captain of the Carolina team that lifted the Cup 20 years ago.
Current captain Jordan Staal also won a Cup with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2009. And make it five original Golden Knights who have been in every one of the franchise’s Cup trips as hard-hitting Hurricanes fourth-line winger William Carrier was a fan favorite of the 2018 and 2023 Vegas teams.But it’s appropriate that the majority of the players for the Golden Knights are new to the Cup now because this has been a wholly different season than any previous one. The biggest driving forces of this championship run are first-year Golden Knights in Marner and goalie Carter Hart.
Carter Hart
After years of playoff underperformance in Toronto, Marner has exploded in Vegas with a league-leading 21 points and elite-level defense. Tortorella has said repeatedly that Marner has been the Golden Knights’ best player—even after he didn’t score a goal in the Avalanche series—and it’s hard to argue otherwise.
But Marner gave Hart that distinction in what has perhaps been a more unexpected playoff breakout. The Golden Knights controversially signed Hart before the season after the former Flyers goalie had spent a season and a half out of the NHL facing a highly publicized sexual assault trial in his native Canada.
Hart was acquitted but suspended for the start of the year for violating the league’s code of conduct policy.
He struggled in his first regular-season action and looked not worth all the criticism that came the Golden Knights’ way but has now locked in for the best stretch of his career under Tortorella, his longtime mentor and former Flyers’ coach.
Vegas also sacrificed future assets for trade-deadline acquisitions Rasmus Andersson, Nic Dowd and Cole Smith, and they’ve all come up big at different times of the playoffs. Cole Smith emerged as the unlikely series-winning goal scorer against the Avalanche in a moment he said words can’t describe.
“That’s how it happens,” Tortorella said. “Your stars are going to be your stars, but to keep it advancing and get to the position we’re at now, playing in the fourth round, playing for the Cup, those other pieces have to come through and they have.”
This year’s playoff run hasn’t been without its distractions off the ice. Already seen as the villains of the NHL for their ruthless operating nature, the Golden Knights have only elevated that profile over the last two months.
Tortorella has long been a firebrand who’s warred with league powers, media members, his own front offices and his own players in the past. He said he was trying to change with the Golden Knights but the players are the only group that have appeared to escape his antics so far.
Vegas lost a second-round pick in this year’s draft for Tortorella refusing to comply with the league’s media policies after a series win over the Anaheim Ducks, and general manager Kelly McCrimmon blamed the situation squarely on the coach.
McCrimmon is deep in his own dispute, however, as he has not allowed the fired Cassidy to interview for job openings with the Edmonton Oilers or Los Angeles Kings while still under contract with the Golden Knights.
Cassidy has admitted frustration and the NHL Coaches’ Association has condemned the cutthroat move.
The Golden Knights were never beloved in NHL circles as other fanbases resented their immediate success, but the enmity is at an all-time high this year.
The 2018 team had a Cinderella quality while the 2023 squad was at least regarded as deserving after so many previous close calls for the franchise, including a pair of conference-final ousters in 2020 and 2021. It’s an all new feeling this time around.
“It feels like just yesterday was the first year we were doing this,” McNabb said. “It’s been an awesome ride. I’m very fortunate that I’ve been here this long and have another opportunity to try to win one.”
