Golden Knights in rare company after clinching playoff berth

The Vegas Golden Knights became the first NHL expansion team started from scratch to qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs in its inaugural season since 1967-68 when they defeated the Colorado Avalanche 4-1 on Monday.

Two of the teams that joined the NHL from the World Hockey Association in 1979, the Edmonton Oilers and Hartford Whalers, reached the playoffs in their first season, when 16 of 21 teams qualified. Each was swept in its best-of-5 first-round series.
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The six teams that joined the NHL in 1967 were placed in the West Division, and four qualified for the postseason.
No team that joined the NHL since 1991 had qualified for the playoffs in its inaugural season. The 1993-94 Florida Panthers came closest with 83 points (33-34-17), one behind the New York Islanders for eighth place in the Eastern Conference.
Since the first NHL expansion in 1967, no NFL or Major League Baseball team has qualified for the playoffs in its first season. Four NBA teams have done so: the 1966-67 Chicago Bulls, 1976-77 Denver Nuggets and San Antonio Spurs, and the 2002-03 New Orleans Hornets. The Nuggets and Spurs were two of the four teams that joined the NBA from the American Basketball Association, and the Bulls were part of an eight-team playoff bracket in a 10-team league. The Hornets relocated from Charlotte but are considered an expansion franchise by the NBA.
The Golden Knights (48-21-7) lead the second-place San Jose Sharks by six points in the Pacific Division. No first-year NHL team has won a division title since 1970-71, when the Buffalo Sabres and Vancouver Canucks entered the League after two seasons of no expansion, and the 1976-77 Nuggets are the only team to do it in the four major North American sports leagues in that span.

With 103 points, the Golden Knights are fourth in the NHL standings. Vegas is trying to become the first expansion team to finish in the top five in the League since the 1926-27 New York Rangers, who were third in a 10-team NHL. The 1976-77 Nuggets, who tied for the second-best record in the NBA, are the only top-five finisher among first-year teams in any of the four major sports during the past 50 years.
The Golden Knights are the 12th team to qualify for the playoffs in their first season since the NHL was formed in 1917. In addition to four of the six new teams in 1967-68 and the Whalers and Oilers in 1979-80, the Toronto Arenas and Montreal Canadiens met in the NHL Final in 1917-18, the League's first season; the Pittsburgh Pirates lost in the 1926 Semifinals; and the Chicago Blackhawks and Rangers qualified in 1927, with the Blackhawks losing in the Quarterfinals and the Rangers in the Semifinals.
Prior to the Golden Knights, no team that joined the NHL since 1991 had advanced to the playoffs before its third season. The 1993-94 Sharks, 1995-96 Panthers and 2002-03 Minnesota Wild each won their first series, with the Wild reaching the Western Conference Final and the Panthers advancing to the Stanley Cup Final.
The Golden Knights are on target to become the first to finish in the top half of the NHL since the 1967-68 Philadelphia Flyers, who won the West Division and were sixth among the 12 teams in the League.
Since 1967-68, three first-year teams, the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in 1993-94 and the Oilers and Whalers in 1979-80, had finished as high as fourth in a division that included more than four teams.