The Vegas Golden Knights have set an NHL record for an expansion team by winning five of their first six games. I have watched all of their games and slowly I'm starting to become a Vegas fan. No expansion team in NHL history since the first expansion in 1967 has ever won five of their first six hockey games. When an expansion team plays their first season they usually stink. But that is not the case with Vegas. It's also kind of surprising because in the expansion draft Vegas could've drafted a better roster than the roster that Vegas General Manager George McPhee actually assembled.

Vegas has a roster mainly of guys who have experience in the NHL which in previous expansion drafts other teams couldn't get those types of players. Vegas got their first star in goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury whom the drafted from Pittsburgh in the expansion draft. Fleury who led Pittsburgh to three Stanley Cup Championships is the guy Vegas is building their team around. Fleury played well posting a 3-1-0 record with a 2.48 Goals Against Average and a .925 Save Percentage in four starts before getting injured in the only Vegas loss 6-3 to Detroit on Friday and ending up on the Injured Reserve. Vegas originally acquired goaltender Calvin Pickard from Colorado in the expansion draft to back up Fleury. But after struggling in the preseason Pickard was placed on waivers and after he initially cleared waivers he was traded to Toronto the day before the season began for prospect forward Tobias Lindberg and a sixth-round pick in the upcoming draft. Vegas then picked up P.K. Subban's younger brother Malcolm off waivers from Boston to back up Fleury.

In his first two games against his old team Boston and last night against Buffalo respectively Subban won both of those games after being up and down between the NHL and the AHL for most of his career. Vegas also has a lot of great goal scorers. James Neal, who is perhaps the second best player on the Knights behind Fleury has six goals and eight points in just six games this year. Neal has always been a consistent twenty goal scorer playing with Dallas, Pittsburgh, and Nashville before winding up in Vegas via the expansion draft. Vegas also has a great young forward in Alex Tuch. In watching the last two games that Tuch has played in for Vegas, I have been impressed. He gets into the dirty areas to get goals and in his first two NHL games, he has his first two NHL goals.

Tuch was a first-round pick by Minnesota a couple of years back but after failing to crack Minnesota's roster he was traded to Vegas in the offseason and has seemed to found a home in Sin City. Another player to watch is Vadim Shipachyov (the English pronunciation and spelling are Shipachev) who after being sent down to the minors at the start of the year has been on a roll in the last two games for Vegas. I really think Vegas could at least make a run for a Wild Card spot this year. I wouldn't be surprised if by mid-March if Vegas is still fighting for a playoff spot. For an expansion team, it usually takes about three years to make the playoffs but Vegas owner Bill Foley said he wants to win the cup by the time the franchise is in its sixth season.

The Florida Panthers are the closest team I can think of being this good as an expansion team. In their first two years, they missed the playoffs on the final day of the regular season before making the Stanley Cup Final in its third season. So let me know what you think. Will Vegas be a playoff team year one? How long can Vegas keep up this hot start? Are you a Golden Knights fan? Let me know.