Nobody saw this coming.
Coming into the 2025-26 season, the Vegas Golden Knights looked built for another deep Stanley Cup run. The roster was loaded with star power, veteran leadership, and championship experience. Jack Eichel was still playing at an elite level. Mark Stone remained the heartbeat of the team. Tomas Hertl had a full season in Vegas. Pavel Dorofeyev was developing into a legitimate scoring threat. And management doubled down on the franchise’s “win-now” mentality once again.
But underneath the surface, the season was slowly beginning to unravel.
Vegas opened the year inconsistently, struggling to find rhythm despite flashes of dominance. The Golden Knights would follow up dominant wins with flat performances, and injuries quickly became a major storyline. The team spent stretches without key pieces in the lineup, including long absences in goal, forcing Vegas to constantly shuffle combinations and search for stability.
Still, the numbers showed there was talent everywhere.
Jack Eichel finished the regular season with 90 points, including 27 goals and 63 assists, while continuing to dominate possession and drive the offense every night. Pavel Dorofeyev exploded offensively with a team-leading 37 goals and emerged as one of the NHL’s breakout stars. Mark Stone quietly remained one of the league’s best two-way forwards, posting a team-best +26 rating while battling through injuries throughout the year. Vegas finished the season with 265 goals scored and captured another Pacific Division title despite the chaos surrounding the team.
But by March, the season felt like it was slipping away.
After sitting comfortably near the top of the division earlier in the year, the Golden Knights collapsed down the stretch. From January 19 through late March, Vegas went just 8-15-4 and suddenly found itself fighting simply to hold onto a playoff spot. The energy around the team looked gone. Players appeared frustrated. The offense became stagnant, and the locker room reportedly began tuning out head coach Bruce Cassidy.
And that’s what made the next move so shocking.
On March 29, with only eight games remaining in the regular season, Vegas fired Bruce Cassidy. It was one of the most stunning coaching changes in recent NHL history. Cassidy had coached the franchise to its first Stanley Cup championship in 2023 and compiled a 178-99-43 record during his four seasons with the organization.
But Golden Knights management believed the room needed a jolt.
General manager Kelly McCrimmon later said the team had “lost its spirit and energy,” and Vegas immediately replaced Cassidy with one of the most controversial and demanding coaches in hockey history: John Tortorella.
The reaction around hockey was disbelief.
Tortorella was already one of the NHL’s most polarizing figures — a fiery old-school coach known for brutal honesty, demanding accountability, and occasionally clashing with players and media. Yet he also brought a résumé few coaches could match. Tortorella entered Vegas with over 800 career NHL wins, multiple Jack Adams Awards, and a Stanley Cup championship with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2004. But despite decades behind NHL benches in Tampa Bay, New York, Vancouver, Columbus, Philadelphia, and now Vegas, he had not returned to the Stanley Cup Final since that 2004 championship run.
Fans immediately questioned the move.
Many believed Tortorella’s style would never work in modern hockey. Social media exploded with criticism, and even many Vegas fans thought the organization had completely lost its mind. One viral Reddit comment simply asked, “How the hell does Tortorella keep getting hired?” while others described the move as a desperate “Hail Mary.”
Instead, it changed everything.
Almost overnight, Vegas looked reborn.
The Golden Knights finished the regular season on a 7-0-1 run under Tortorella and surged back to the top of the Pacific Division. The forecheck became relentless. The pace increased. The swagger returned. Players looked energized again, and the team suddenly resembled the aggressive, confident group that had defined the franchise since entering the NHL in 2017.
At the center of the turnaround was one of the most controversial stories in hockey.
When Vegas signed Carter Hart before the season, the move immediately sparked massive debate around the league. Hart had stepped away from hockey while facing sexual assault charges connected to an alleged 2018 incident involving members of Canada’s World Junior team. Hart consistently denied wrongdoing throughout the legal process. Earlier this year, he was acquitted after court proceedings concluded, clearing him of criminal charges. Following the ruling, Vegas made the decision to sign the former Philadelphia Flyers goaltender, believing both the legal process and NHL reviews allowed him to return to the league.
The backlash was intense. Many fans and analysts criticized the organization for taking the risk, while others argued Hart deserved an opportunity after being acquitted. The signing instantly became one of the biggest storylines in hockey before Hart even played a game.
Then injuries disrupted his season almost immediately.
Hart missed significant time during the regular season and appeared in limited action early on, while Adin Hill and Akira Schmid split starts. But when Hart returned late in the year, everything changed. He caught fire at exactly the right moment and became one of the hottest goaltenders in hockey entering the playoffs. During Vegas’ playoff run, Hart consistently delivered in massive moments, including a 29-save performance in Game 2 against Colorado and multiple clutch third-period sequences throughout the postseason.
By the time the playoffs arrived, Vegas had gone from a team people doubted to one nobody wanted to face.
The Golden Knights eliminated the Utah Mammoth in six games during Utah’s first-ever playoff appearance, then took down Anaheim in another physical six-game series. Suddenly, Vegas found itself back in the Western Conference Final against the Colorado Avalanche — the Presidents’ Trophy winners who finished with a league-best 121 points.
Colorado was heavily favored.
Most analysts expected the Avalanche’s speed, depth, and star power to overwhelm Vegas. Instead, the Golden Knights dominated the series from the start.
Vegas stole the first two games in Colorado, including a dramatic Game 2 comeback where Jack Eichel and Ivan Barbashev scored key third-period goals while Carter Hart stopped 29 shots.
Then came Game 3.
The Golden Knights fell behind 3-0 early at T-Mobile Arena, and it looked like the Avalanche were finally taking control of the series. Instead, Vegas delivered one of the greatest playoff comebacks in franchise history, storming back with five unanswered goals to win 5-3 and take a commanding 3-0 series lead.
Colorado never recovered.
Vegas completed the sweep in Game 4, outscoring the Avalanche 14-7 across the series while completely shutting down one of hockey’s most explosive teams. Carter Hart continued his incredible postseason run, and John Tortorella — the coach everyone questioned two months earlier — was suddenly headed back to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time in 22 years.
Meanwhile, another storyline continued to follow the organization in the background.
Even after firing Bruce Cassidy, the Golden Knights reportedly refused to grant other NHL teams permission to interview him because he still had one year remaining on his contract. The situation drew criticism around the league, with the NHL Coaches Association reportedly monitoring the situation and calling the move “unprecedented.” Teams like the Edmonton Oilers and Los Angeles Kings were believed to have interest in Cassidy, but Vegas continued to block conversations while still paying the remainder of his deal.
And somehow, that still wasn’t the craziest part of the season.
Because through all the controversy, injuries, coaching chaos, criticism, and pressure, the Golden Knights are back in the Stanley Cup Final for the third time in just nine seasons as a franchise.
An expansion team that entered the NHL in 2017 now owns:
- 3 Stanley Cup Final appearances
- 3 Western Conference championships
- 5 Pacific Division titles
- 1 Stanley Cup championship
And now, they’re four wins away from adding another banner in Las Vegas.
Sources for player and coaching stats: NHL.com, ESPN.com, Sportingnews.com, statmuse.com, CBSsports.com
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