Giving the Golden Knights A Proper Mid-90s Team

The Vegas Golden Knights and Seattle Kraken had had to get creative with their reverse retro jerseys considering both NHL franchises have been around for less than a decade.

The Golden Knight’s reverse retro jersey is meant to portray what the Golden Knight’s sweater would have been like in the mid-1990s. Obviously, the Golden Knights were not a thing back then. But what if they were? Here’s Vegas Hockey Now’s alternate history of a 1990s Vegas Golden Knights team.

We’ll cut to the chase right with the roster and then do some explaining on our picks later. The numbers in parenthesis are the years these respective players played in the National Hockey League.

I limited it to only players who have played in the NHL.

1990s Vegas Golden Knights

Marain Stastny (82-86)- Peter Stastny (81-95)- Anton Stastny (81-89)

Gerard Gallant (85-95)- Curtis Leschyshyn (88-04)- Jaromir Jagr (90-???)

George McPhee (83-89) – Stephane Matteau (91-03)- Bobby Smith (79-93)

Steve Konowalchuk (92-06)- Sergei Zholtok (92-04)- Ken Quinney (87-91)

Bruce Cassidy- (83-90)- John Stevens (86-94)

Shane Hnidy (00-11)- Jeff Sharples (87-89)

Kent Carlson (83-89)- Brent Thompson (91-97)

Sean Burke (87-07)/Frank Pietrangelo (87-94)

Catch all the references?

Golden Knights Staff

I started with the Golden Knights coaching staff and upper management, both past and present. Current Golden Knights head coach Bruce Cassidy and his assistant coach John Stevens are a D-pair. VGK president of hockey operations George McPhee played over 100 NHL games and makes it as a third-liner.

Former Golden Knights head coach Gerard Gallant had a solid ten-year NHL career with two teams. Lastly, Director of Goaltending Sean Burke had a nice long NHL career and is the team’s backup goalie.

TV color commentator Shane Hnidy was drafted in 1994, so in this alternate universe, he makes it to the league earlier in Las Vegas.

That Sounds Familiar

I had to give the Golden Knights a Pietrangelo, Smith, Thompson, and Karlsson/Carlsson for name brand recognition.

Bobby Smith was quite the player in his time, and Frank Pietrangelo is Alex’s cousin-once-removed. Also, on the family side of things, I included Curtis Leschyshyn, Jake’s dad. Kent Carlson is a guy.

During the Golden Knight’s inaugural season, Stefan Matteau played in eight games for the VGK. But a decade earlier, there was another Stephane Matteau who scored a famous goal for the NY Rangers.

I included the trio of the Stastny brothers, even though some of them didn’t play into the 90s, because of Paul Stastny. I had to take some creative liberties, okay?

Feel the Thunder

I rounded out the roster with players from the Las Vegas Thunder, an International Hockey League team that played in Las Vegas from 1993 to 1999. I simply took their all-time leading scorers that played in the NHL and slotted them in the lineup, which gives us Sergei Zholtok, Ken Quinney, and Jeff Sharples.

Bonus

There is only one player to make it into the NHL from the state of Nevada, and that is Gage Quinney, who in the 90s was -5 years old at the time. So I had to go to nearby Utah and steal Steve Konowalchuk.

Finally, in this alternate universe, Jaromir Jagr saw the opportunity to play in Fabulous Las Vegas and took the chance as soon as he could, requesting a trade from the Pittsburgh Penguins immediately.

Projection

This team has some offensive weapons with the Stastnys and Jagr and good goaltending. But a week D-corps likely makes them a non-playoff team.

So relax, last season was not the first time the Vegas Golden Knights missed the playoffs.