Vegas Golden Knights: How a First-Year Expansion Team Healed Las Vegas and Shocked the Hockey World

by Joe Pane, Deke Castleman

William Foley took a big risk when he and partners paid $500 million for a Las Vegas expansion hockey team. Would they be competitive? Would the locals support them? Would visitors sacrifice gambling time for hockey in the desert? The answer to all these questions was a resounding, “Yes!” Vegas Golden Knights delves deeply into the unlikely but momentous journey that took the Knights to the top in their inaugural season, even as they carried the weight of a grieving city along the way. This book - how Las Vegas got its first major-league sports team - how the expansion draft resembled a poker game - why the Golden Knights and the mass Strip shooting will forever be linked - the over-the-top merchandising, ticket sales, and fan mania - how Las Vegas’ legal sports betting helped fuel the phenomenon - profiles of the players - recaps of all 102 games - explanations of key hockey terminology and concepts This book puts you right in the middle of a sports tale so miraculous that it transcends winning and losing—it’s the story of the mismatched misfits who made a run for the ages while a city, and the world, watched in amazement.

296 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 4, 2018

Reviews

[Graham Bates · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vegas Golden Knights is basically an fan-side view of the development and first season of the Vegas Golden Knight hockey team. It is thorough in its chronicle of the entire year, including summaries for each regular-season and postseason game. It is written by someone who has watched hockey for generations, and the added vignettes are a welcome addition to people who are unfamiliar with hockey; however, Pane seems to have an allergy to suspense, since his book gives away the outcome of almost every game at the beginning of each summary. This made the rest of the summary seem redundant and unnecessary. While the outcome was known at the outset, Pane made little effort to hide this from people (like myself) who did not watch any of the games throughout the year. In addition, there were two glaring mistakes: Reilly Smith played for Miami of Ohio, not Florida and near the end of the regular season a game was mislabeled as an away game instead of home. Those easy-to-see errors and the constant drama-squashing oversharing - in addition to the stream-of-consciousness feel - make this a good book for historians wanting a full chronicle of events in the game but not a person enthralled with the unpredictable nature of sport.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

The early chapters describing the formation of the team were interesting. Then the author gives an overview of every game VGK played in their first season which is laborious. I skipped it and went to lunch.