The NHL's newest team, the Vegas Golden Knights, will take the ice for the 2017-18 season. The Knights unveiled their initial roster during a glitzy expansion draft flurry -- and introduced Marc-Andre Fleury, the three-time Stanley Cup champion who will be their No. 1 goalie and the face of the new franchise. They also added a collection of credible scorers in Jonathan Marchessault, James Neal and David Perron.
Can Vegas parlay all those picks into a winner and create a competitive, 23-man roster by the time the Knights open the season on Oct. 6 against the Dallas Stars?
Well, the new teammates -- and wolf pack -- appear to be bonding well already in Sin City. Here's a look at the NHL's newest hockey team:
Goalies
Marc-Andre Fleury
Age: 32
Previous team: Pittsburgh Penguins
How they got him: Expansion draft
The Golden Knights have pegged Fleury as their poster boy, and with good reason. He ranks with John Vanbiesbrouck as one of the best goalies ever selected by an expansion franchise. (Vanbiesbrouck was 30 years old when the Florida Panthers selected him from the New York Rangers in 1993.) Fleury -- who has a career regular-season record of 375-216-68 in addition to those three Stanley Cups -- showed during the first two rounds of the playoffs that he can still play at a top level and can make the Knights competitive from Day One.
Calvin Pickard
Age: 25
Previous team: Colorado Avalanche
How they got him: Selected first overall in the expansion draft
The backup goalie has played 86 games in the NHL, including 50 last season with the Avs, when he went 15-31-2 with a .904 save percentage and allowed 2.98 goals a game.
Centers
Cody Eakin
Age: 26
Previous team: Dallas Stars
How they got him: Expansion draft
Eakin, a solid two-way center who was selected in the 2009 entry draft by Golden Knights GM George McPhee when he was running the Washington Capitals, played 349 games for the Stars, tallying 146 points (61 goals, 85 assists).
Mikhail Grabovski
Age: 33
Previous team: New York Islanders
How they got him: via trade
Grabovski hasn't played a game since sustaining a concussion in the middle of the 2015-16 season, and has not been medically cleared to play despite having recently skated. The German-born Belarusian has 296 points in 534 career games and has played for the Canadiens, Maple Leafs and Capitals.
William Karlsson
Age: 24
Previous team: Columbus Blue Jackets
How they got him: Expansion draft
"Wild Bill" came to Columbus from Anaheim at the 2015 trade deadline. While never an offensive catalyst, Karlsson -- who averaged 13 minutes of ice time a game with more PIM (10) than goals scored (six) -- earned praise for his play away from the puck. Earlier this summer, he was part of the Swedish team that won the IIHF world championship.
Oscar Lindberg
Age: 24
Previous team: New York Rangers
How they got him: Expansion draft
The forward, who played a mostly complementary role for the Rangers and who has scored 21 goals and 48 points in 134 career games the past two seasons, should have every opportunity to seize a bigger role with Vegas.
Jonathan Marchessault
Age: 26
Previous team: Florida Panthers
How they got him: Expansion draft
The blossoming scorer is coming off of a breakout 30-goal, 51-point season. And the 5-foot-9 winger is signed for another season at just $750,000.
Tomas Nosek
Age: 24
Previous team: Detroit Red Wings
How they got him: Expansion draft
One of the Red Wings' top minor-league prospects, Nosek was expected to graduate to the NHL next season. The 6-foot-2, 210-pounder led Grand Rapids to the Calder Cup this spring, pacing the team with 22 points (10 goals, 12 assists) in 19 games, including a team-leading five power-play goals.
Left wings
William Carrier
Age: 22
Previous team: Buffalo Sabres
How they got him: Expansion draft
Drafted in the second round by St. Louis in 2013, Carrier came to Buffalo as part of the blockbuster trade that sent Ryan Miller and Steve Ott to the Blues in February 2014. The winger showed impressive speed as a rookie last season, but had just five goals and three assists in 41 games.
Nikita Gusev
Age: 24
Previous team: Tampa Bay Lightning
How they got him: Expansion draft, via trade
Gusev played with Russian free agent Vadim Shipachyov, one of the top centers in the Kontinental Hockey League, in Russia -- and the Knights hope that Shipachyov will eventually come to Las Vegas to play with Gusev again.
Erik Haula
Age: 26
Previous team: Minnesota Wild
How they got him: Expansion draft
The speedy center -- often used in a defense-first role -- was a mainstay in the Wild's lineup the past four seasons, playing in 266 regular-season games and producing 42 goals and 47 assists. Born in Finland, Haula was raised in Minnesota, but the Wild, who plan to re-sign pending restricted free agents Mikael Granlund and Nino Niederreiter, couldn't afford to keep him, too.
Brendan Leipsic
Age: 23
Previous team: Toronto Maple Leafs
How they got him: Expansion draft
Leipsic had 18 goals, 33 assists and 51 points in 49 AHL games for the Toronto Marlies last season. The former third-round draft choice in 2012 played one NHL stint for the Maple Leafs in February 2016, tallying three points in six games, but didn't make an appearance for the big club in 2016-17.
James Neal
Age: 29
Previous team: Nashville Predators
How they got him: Expansion draft
The Knights are likely to struggle to score, and they'll need Neal -- their likely top-line right winger -- to step up. Few players in the NHL have a release as quick as Neal, who has scored 20 or more goals in six consecutive seasons, including 31 two seasons ago and 40 in 2011-12.
David Perron
Age: 29
Previous team: St. Louis Blues
How they got him: Expansion draft
After breaking into the NHL as a 19-year-old after being selected by the Blues in the first round back in 2007, Perron spent six seasons in St. Louis before being traded to the Edmonton Oilers following the 2012-13 season. He returned to the Blues last summer on a two-year, $7.5 million dollar deal, and scored 18 goals with 28 assists while playing in all 82 games.
Teemu Pulkkinen
Age: 25
Previous team: Arizona Coyotes
How they got him: Expansion draft
Pulkkinen has bounced around the past few seasons, from the Red Wings to the Wild to the Coyotes, but has 83 NHL games under his belt. He appeared in just four games last season with the Coyotes, scoring one goal, after he was added in a Feb. 27 trade with the Wild.
Right wings
Pierre-Edouard Bellemare
Age: 32
Previous team: Philadelphia Flyers
How they got him: Expansion draft
Bellemare, a Paris native who had 17 goals and 34 points in 237 games in three seasons with the Flyers, can play throughout the lineup, does solid work as a penalty killer and has a $1.45 million cap hit for this season and 2018-19.
Keegan Kolesar
Age: 20
Previous team: Columbus Blue Jackets
How they got him: Via trade, in exchange for a second-round 2017 draft pick
The Golden Knights sent the 45th overall pick in this year's draft to Columbus in exchange for Kolesar, a physical, 6-foot-2, 223-pound prospect who had 12 goals and 31 points in 19 games during the 2017 WHL playoffs for the Seattle Thunderbirds.
Reilly Smith
Age: 26
Previous team: Florida Panthers
How they got him: Via trade
Smith -- who scored a career-high 25 goals for the Panthers in 2015-16 and led Florida with four goals and eight points in its six-game playoff series against the Islanders that spring -- tallied just 15 goals and 37 points for the Panthers last season. But he seems likely to get a bump in playing time in the desert.
Alex Tuch
Age: 21
Previous team: Minnesota Wild
How they got him: Expansion draft, via trade
McPhee added the prized Wild prospect by agreeing to take restricted free agent Erik Haula instead of selecting defensemen Matt Dumba or Marco Scandella or forward Eric Staal. The 6-foot-4, 222-pound Tuch appeared in six games with Minnesota in 2016-17, including his NHL debut Feb. 4 in Vancouver. He totaled 37 points and 28 PIM in 57 games with the Iowa Wild in the AHL.
Jake Bischoff
Age: 22
Previous team: New York Islanders
How they got him: Expansion draft, via trade
After completing his senior season at the University of Minnesota, Bischoff played six games for AHL Bridgeport Sound, tallying a pair of goals and an assist. He will almost certainly start the 2017-18 season with Vegas' AHL affiliate in Chicago, but lineup shuffling in Vegas could create an opening for him.
Deryk Engelland
Age: 35
Previous team: Calgary Flames
How they got him: Expansion draft
The rugged defenseman, who has lived in Las Vegas ever since he played minor-league hockey there from 2003 to 2005, will play a crucial role for the Knights. Not only is he close with Fleury, his former teammate in Pittsburgh, but he'll serve as a protector on the ice and an ambassador of it.
Jason Garrison
Age: 32
Previous team: Tampa Bay Lightning
How they got him: Expansion draft
Garrison has a booming shot from the point and has scored as many as 16 goals in a single season, but he had just one goal and nine points in 70 games for the Lightning in 2016-17.
Brayden McNabb
Age: 26
Previous team: Los Angeles Kings
How they got him: Expansion draft
Selected 66th overall by the Sabres in 2009, McNabb moved to the Kings in 2014, for whom he contributed a collective six goals and 42 points during 201 career games. He's been a solid lower-pairing player, averaging 16:52 of ice time per night in Los Angeles.
Jon Merrill
Age: 25
Previous team: New Jersey Devils
How they got him: Expansion draft
Merrill was a second-round pick by the Devils in the 2010 NHL draft, going 38th overall. He made his NHL debut in 2013 and played in 216 games in four seasons with the Devils, recording 36 points.
Colin Miller
Age: 24
Previous team: Boston Bruins
How they got him: Expansion draft
Miller -- whom the Bruins acquired during the trade with the Kings for Milan Lucic on June 27, 2015 -- appeared in 61 games with Boston in 2016-17, tallying 13 points while averaging 15:49 of ice time. He has a strong slap shot and impressive skating ability, and could become an impact player on the Knights' blue line.
Griffin Reinhart
Age: 23
Previous team: Edmonton Oilers
How they got him: Expansion draft
Selected fourth overall by the Islanders in the 2012 entry draft, Reinhart was eventually traded to Edmonton for a draft pick that the Isles used to select top prospect Mathew Barzal. Reinhart, who has no goals and two assists in 37 career NHL games, will get a fresh start in Vegas.
Luca Sbisa
Age: 27
Previous team: Vancouver Canucks
How they got him: Expansion draft
The left-shooting Swiss defenseman played in all 82 games for Vancouver this past season, but he posted just two goals and 13 points. Sbisa has one more year left on his contract with a cap hit of $3.6 million.
Nate Schmidt
Age: 25
Previous team: Washington Capitals
How they got him: Expansion draft
Losing the 25-year-old puck-moving defenseman was a big blow for the Capitals, who attempted to strike a deal with Vegas not to draft Schmidt but ultimately couldn't protect him in the expansion draft because of salary-cap concerns. Schmidt -- who was a college free-agent signing for Washington in 2013, when McPhee was still the Capitals' general manager -- scored three goals and added 14 assists in 60 games for a plus-22 rating last season. His breakout came during the postseason, when he averaged 16:39 of ice time in 11 appearances and led the Capitals with a plus-6 rating.
Clayton Stoner
Age: 32
Previous team: Anaheim Ducks
How they got him: Expansion draft
The 32-year-old stay-at-home defenseman -- who is headed into the final year of a four-year contract at a cap hit of $3.25 million -- played in 133 regular-season games and 31 playoff games for the Ducks. He contributed 17 points during the regular season (including three goals) and five points in the playoffs.
Shea Theodore
Age: 21
Previous team: Anaheim Ducks
How they got him: Expansion draft, via trade
The Golden Knights plucked the promising young defenseman away from the Ducks by agreeing to stay away from Josh Manson and Sami Vatanen. Theodore, Anaheim's first-round draft pick in 2013, split time between the Ducks and the AHL's San Diego Gulls last season, playing 34 games with Anaheim and totaling 2 goals, 7 assists and 28 penalty minutes along with a minus-6 rating. He also played well during the Ducks' first-round playoff series against Calgary, contributing eight points in 14 games.