The Vegas Golden Knights could win the Stanley Cup in its first year of existence. That's largely thanks to a group of players who abandoned the last Cup winner.
With the Penguins out of the playoffs since the Capitals beat them in the second round, a group of former Penguins - led by their goalkeeper over a decade - has been critical in the historic Vegas race for the Cup final.
If the Golden Knights defeat the capitals, Fleury will win the Conn Smythe Trophy as MVP of the playoffs. Even if the Knights lose, there is a chance that Fleury will win that honor.
Enter with a save percentage of .947 and an allowed average of 1.72 goals in the playoffs. In three possible closing games, he has a 3-0 record and has stopped 90 of the 91 shots he has faced. He has already tied a playoff record with four shutouts. All this comes after the best regular season of Fleury's career. He is 33 years old.
The decision by Las Vegas general manager George McPhee to send Fleury and a Pittsburgh second-round draft turned out to be a success. (The penguins were worried that Vegas would take someone else, perhaps to forward Bryan Rust, so they bribed Vegas to recruit Fleury).
Between the Pittsburgh Stanley Cup of 2009 and the race in 2016-17, the penguins regularly froze the elite teams that lost to the bottom seeds in the playoffs. During that time, they played with a handful of guys who have now found homes in Las Vegas. Those were defender Deryk Engelland and two scoring sides, James Neal and David Perron.
Neal scored some great scoring totals in Pittsburgh after moving from the stars in a 2011 operation. In his first full season there, he scored 40 goals. Perron, a 2013 pickup before the deadline, has scored practically everywhere he has been except Pittsburgh. Engelland was a farmer of the Penguins who became a useful advocate for a time.
Neal scored 27 goals in his last season in Pittsburgh, 2013-14. Engelland left after the same year, when he played in 56 games as a depth defender. The Penguins bought Neal in search of more than one end of touchdown, and they traded him for that player in Patric Hornqvist. Engelland let the flames pay him in free agency.
Perron never played well in Pittsburgh. The Penguins changed it to the Ducks for the end Carl Hagelin, who played a role (along with Hornqvist) in two teams of the Cup.
Engelland, 35, playing in his hometown, scored a personal record of 23 points from the blue line by becoming a totally new player. The Flames exposed it to the expansion draft group and probably did not think they were losing much when they did.
Anaheim allowed Perron to enter free agency after the 2015-16 season. He spent a year with the Blues and played decently, scoring 18 goals and 46 points. The Blues exposed him to the expansion draft, and the Knights saw him score 66 points, the best of his career.
Neal is not the scorer he used to be, but after the Predators exposed him and his $ 5 million capped the expansion draft, Vegas took it. He gave the Knights 25 goals in the regular season, which is for what is good today, and valuable.
Vegas added an ex-penguin more in an agreement prior to the deadline this year. Executor Ryan Reaves did not have a place in the Pittsburgh lineup, even though the team negotiated for him last summer. Because hockey is fun, Reaves - who had four goals in 79 games this year between Pittsburgh and Las Vegas - scored the winner in Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals.
Reaves was a scratch during almost the first two rounds.
The penguins were not necessarily wrong to drop any of these guys. Engelland became expensive, and Perron and Reaves never exercised in Pittsburgh. Neal brought back Hornqvist, a key player in those last two Cup races. Hanging in Fleury would have meant great sacrifices in other places, until losing the young Matt Murray.
The paths of these players have led to the perfect place in Vegas. And after two years of winning the Penguins, a group of guys who let go are in a position to replace them at the top.
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