Until recently, Las Vegas was the largest US city to lack a major sports franchise. That changed late last year when the Golden Knights, the NHL's first expansion team in 17 years, broke ice in the desert.

It's fair to say that the Golden Knights were viewed as a novelty rather than a team that was meant to instantly contend for silverware. After all, the early years for expansion teams tend to follow a normal pattern: An expansion draft produces a rag-tag group of misfits who go on to stink during their inaugural season, gaining their franchise valuable draft picks for future seasons.

The Golden Knights, however, haven't followed the normal pattern. Their habit has been winning hockey games, shocking pundits along the way to the Stanley Cup final.

How does the Knights' inaugural season compare to other NHL expansion teams?

Historically, NHL expansion teams struggle in their first season and more often than not finish bottom of their conference. The only exceptions are the expansion teams of 1967 who were all placed into their own additional Western conference. This guaranteed that one team, the St Louis Blues, would make it to the final. They were unsurprisingly swept in four games.

The Knights, however, weren't guaranteed anything. Their incredible form (51-24-7) saw them record the best inaugural regular season of any NHL expansion team in history. Their rookie winning percentage was 23 points better than the previous best, the Anaheim Ducks.

The Golden Knights are icebreakers Inaugural season win percentages for NHL expansion teams.

Excluding 1967 Western expansion conference sides and any franchises merged from rival hockey leagues

On top of this impressive record, the Knights are the only true expansion team to make the NHL playoffs in their inaugural season. They even made it look easy by winning the Pacific Division in order to get there. Each step after that was viewed as a remarkable achievement. They beat the Kings, the Sharks and finally the Jets to reach the Stanley Cup final, making an already historic season the stuff of dreams.

For context, there are four NHL sides who have never reached the finals, despite trying for a combined 89 seasons. Now the Knights are only four wins away from winning the Stanley Cup. A feat that was priced at a 500-1 chance of happening at the beginning of the season.

How does the Knights' inaugural season compare to expansion teams from other sports?

Within their league the Knights come out golden helmet and shoulder plates above their associates. However, their story isn’t limited to the ice. Compared to the best starters from other major US sports leagues their story becomes even more remarkable.

Others sports strikeout, technical foul and fumble

Inaugural season win percentages for other major US sports leagues.

Excluding franchises merged from rival leagues

MLB NBA

Like the NHL's history of expansion teams, all new sides brought into NFL, NBA and MLB have failed to make the playoffs in their first season.

So the Knights are unique across major US sports then?

Almost. New expansion teams from the major four US sports might initially struggle but in MLS it's a different story.

Chicago Fire, Houston Dynamo, Seattle Sounders and Atlanta United all achieved instant success by reaching the playoffs in their first seasons in MLS. The Fire and Dynamo actually went further and brought home MLS Cup in their inaugural season (Dynamo won the title in their second season, too). However, this isn't exactly a like-for-like comparison.

While MLS does have a similar process of inducting new teams into their league, there is one telling difference: the importance of expansion drafts. Let's take the most recent MLS success story, Atlanta United. They drafted five players in their expansion draft, three of whom were instantly traded while the other two are now on loan at lower-level clubs.

The simple reason is that MLS clubs have a huge global talent pool at their disposal. The best soccer players tend to ply their trade in Europe and South America. Top players can be signed freely in less regulated foreign transfer markets. As for NHL, and the other major US sports, the best players are already there. Not only does this make MLS an unfair comparison, it also makes the Knights success even more impressive. They had to feed on the scraps left by the established teams.

How common is instant success among expansion teams?

Outside of MLS, reaching the playoffs for an expansion team is a pipe dream, so the Knights are on the verge of making unprecedented and unexpected history with their shot of winning the whole thing. However, should it all go wrong against their Stanley Cup opponents, the Washington Capitals, all is not lost. If they can come back stronger and prove this team is built for success, reaching the heights of a sport early on in a franchise's history isn't impossible.

Arizona Diamondbacks Not only did the Diamondbacks become the first MLB expansion team to make the playoffs in their second season, they became the fastest expansion team to win the World Series. Their fourth season saw Arizona win the World Series against a New York Yankees side looking for their fourth successive championship. Milwaukee Bucks It was an incredibly promising start for the Bucks. Led by Lew Alcindor (later known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), they swept the Baltimore Bullets in the NBA finals in only their third season. They nearly added a second in their sixth season but lost to the Boston Celtics in Game 7 of the finals. A few seasons later, Kareem left and the Bucks have since struggled to meet the highs of those early years. Florida Marlins The Florida Marlins (now the Miami Marlins) made steady progress in their first four seasons until they unexpectedly won the World Series in 1997. They won the title against in 2003 but have failed to reach the playoffs since. Seattle Storm The Storm's first two seasons were rough with a 25% win percentage but since then they've rarely failed to make the playoffs. They won the WNBA finals in 2004 and 2010.

What does this all mean?

That the Golden Knights are surprisingly good at hockey, regardless of what happens over the next week. Their team, cobbled together from unprotected draft picks, have achieved success that transcends their sport.

Opposing fans might bemoan a rigged deck in an expansion draft that was weighted towards instant success. They might have a point given how many players teams were able to protect in the draft (only 11 players compared to 15 in the last expansion draft in 2000). However, it's worth reiterating that the teams agreed to this format.

It's also worth noting how aggressively their picks were panned by the pundits – some that haven't dated particularly well. They chose a reliable goalie, albeit an aging one, in Marc-André Fleury who has responded to his critics by arguably having his best season yet. They also picked up a lot of fringe and aging players who are remarkably posting career-best numbers. That doesn't just happen.

Is this a complete fluke?

Who knows? The Knights are the only franchise in US sports history to be asked such a question in their first season. The fact that so many players have improved under the Knights' management would suggest there's been something behind this success. Equally it could just be down to beginner's luck. The only thing that's clear is that for Las Vegas, the long wait for a team to call its own has been more than worth it, for this season at least.