LAS VEGAS, Nevada – Whether you adore or despise the Vegas Golden Knights, you can’t deny they are the NHL’s greatest disruptors. 

An expansion team that entered the league set on doing things its own way, both on and off the ice. The Vegas story is one of risk vs. reward, where the team has swung bigger than any franchise in recent memory and been willing to live with the consequences of living so dangerously close to the salary cap. 

Two years ago, it cost them a chance at the playoffs, and in 2023 the same strategy led to a Stanley Cup championship. 

This season the Golden Knights are teetering in that same area, the boom vs. bust zone. They were the NHL’s most active and ambitious team at the trade deadline, adding Anthony Mantha, Noah Hanifin, and Tomáš Hertl. At the same time, they comm