Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Stanley Cup playoffs:

Golden Knights’ continued success linked to Panthers’ 2017 decisions

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David Becker / AP File (2022)

Vegas Golden Knights center Jonathan Marchessault and right winger Reilly Smith (19) celebrate a goal against the Anaheim Ducks in a game Oct. 28, 2022, at T-Mobile Arena. The two mainstays of the Golden Knights both came to Vegas in the 2017 expansion draft via the Florida Panthers, the Golden Knights’ opponent in this year’s Stanley Cup Final.

DALLAS — Perhaps no team is linked to the success of the Golden Knights more than the Florida Panthers, the franchise against which Vegas will square off in this year’s Stanley Cup Final.

In the 2017 expansion draft and accompanying trades, when Vegas was expected to take castoffs from other teams, the players it grabbed from Florida wound up changing the fortunes for the startup franchise.

No selection — not even goalie Marc-André Fleury — got a more eye-raising reaction and received more befuddlement than when the Panthers left Jonathan Marchessault unprotected.

But that wasn’t all. To ensure the Golden Knights selected Marchessault, then-Panthers general manager Dale Tallon did one better: Florida threw in Reilly Smith for next-to-free, a fourth-round draft pick in 2018.

Coupled with former Panthers coach Gerard Gallant steering the ship in Vegas, one might call the Golden Knights the Panthers of the West.

“That’s how we built the organization, with trades like that,” Marchessault said.

Fast forward six years later, and the Golden Knights find themselves back in the Stanley Cup Final for the second time in their history, with Marchessault and Smith as two of the pillars leading the way.

And it seems fitting that the team opposite the Golden Knights, chasing their first Stanley Cup championship, would be the Panthers. This full-circle championship series begins Saturday with Game 1 at T-Mobile Arena (5 p.m., TNT).

Marchessault, like the rest of those watching the Stanley Cup Playoffs, can’t help but be amazed at what the Panthers have accomplished this postseason.

The eighth-seeded Panthers have shocked the masses with a playoff run for the ages. They rallied from a 3-1 deficit in the first round to upset the Boston Bruins, the greatest regular-season team ever with 135 points. Then came a five-game series win against the Toronto Maple Leafs in the second round and a stunning sweep of the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Final.

You would be hard-pressed to find anyone who believed the Panthers would be one of the last two teams standing back in April. They needed a win and a Pittsburgh loss to Chicago on the final day of the regular season to get into the postseason.

“I’m not surprised because, in the playoffs, it’s not about who you have in the lineup and who you don’t,” Marchessault said. “It’s about how desperate and how bad the team wants it, and I think they’ve dominated most of the games they’ve been in.”

Marchessault and Smith have had conversations in the past about both ending up in Vegas. They carried the mentality that all the expansion draft selections felt unwanted, easily dismissible from their former team.

Marchessault thought with full certainty that the Panthers were going to protect him in the expansion draft. The undrafted forward seemed to find a home with the Panthers after his first career 30-goal season in 2017, but it didn’t pan out that way.

“It’s water under the bridge,” Marchessault said. “I was disappointed at the time, but that’s six years ago. It doesn’t bother me anymore.”

The 32-year-old Smith has been one of the best 200-foot wingers in the league, showing his reliability offensively and on the penalty kill. He was coming off a down year in 2017 with 37 points, but he has had four 50-point seasons with Vegas in his six-year run. His leadership and reliability earned him a three-year, $15 million extension last summer.

Marchessault will be entering the final year of a six-year, $30 million extension — signed in 2018 — next season.

“I’m just happy to still be here,” Smith said. “I bounced around a lot in the league, and this is a great place to play. Hopefully I can play the rest of my career here.”

Smith and Marchessault are two of the final six remaining “Golden Misfits” — the ragtag group that thrived off the “us against the world” mentality during the first year of the franchise. Those misfits won their division and made it all the way to the 2018 Stanley Cup Final in their inaugural year before losing to the Washington Capitals in five games. It was a group that defied expectations, the likes of which may never be matched.

But all six are playing a huge role in Vegas’ second trip to the Cup Final in its six-year history.

William Karlsson leads the Golden Knights with 10 postseason goals and has to be considered the front-runner for the Conn Smythe Trophy as the MVP in the playoffs, should the Golden Knights win the Cup. William Carrier had a goal and an assist in Monday’s Game 6 Western Conference Final-clinching victory in Dallas. Brayden McNabb and Shea Theodore are also playing a crucial role on defense.

“We’re still kicking,” Karlsson said. “It’s a pretty cool feeling. Original ‘Misfits,’ we’re still kicking and we’re still very proud to wear this jersey.”

The Golden Knights’ success quickly erased that mentality. Five playoff appearances in six seasons, and two Western Conference titles in six years will turn teams from the lovable underdog to the villain.

That comes with plenty of playoff experience. Marchessault and Smith set out from the beginning to prove it was a mistake for the Panthers to let them go.

Time has erased that thought process. There’s only one prize they want now.

“That was the goal since Year 1, to come back here,” Marchessault said. “We’ve worked hard to be here. Our best game is yet to come.”