The Golden Knights' Front Office Is Ruthless, but the Best

Since joining the NHL in 2017, the Vegas Golden Knights have emerged as one of the league's top franchises, reaching two Stanley Cup finals and winning in 2023, and they lead the current series 1-0 against the Carolina Hurricanes. Much of their success is attributed to a front office that is ruthless and unforgiving, treating hockey as a business. The team has changed coaches multiple times, firing Gerard Gallant in 2020, Peter DeBoer in 2022, and Bruce Cassidy late in the 2023 season, replacing him with John Tortorella who has gone 20-4-1. The front office also denied Cassidy a chance to interview other teams and traded Marc-Andre Fleury to Chicago in 2021 to clear cap space.

These high-stakes moves have yielded a championship pedigree, culminating in a 2023 Cup and a deep playoff run this season, underscoring a front-office philosophy that prizes aggressive, sometimes controversial, decisions to sustain elite performance.