The Golden Knights were set up to be bold, acted that way, and were rewarded for it as Stanley Cup champions

Expansion rules pushed them there, and those with eyes on owning NHL teams — groups in Salt Lake City, Atlanta, Houston, and Kansas City, to name a few — have every right to dream of the same.

Beginning with the Vegas draft in 2017 — the same rules applied to Seattle in 2021, and will likely apply for further expansion — existing teams were allowed to protect seven forwards, three defensemen, and one goaltender, or eight skaters and one defenseman. In 2000, when Columbus and Minnesota entered the league, teams could protect nine forwards, five defensemen, and one goalie, or two goalies, three defensemen, and seven forwards.

For the first time in league history, the newcomer could essentially pluck a third-line forward and a top-four defenseman from every team, rather than fringe players left on the scrap heap. Then-Vegas general manager George McPhee gleefully used his leverage to hammer his scrambling peers.

Ironically, the Panthers were the most skittish team that summer. Then-GM Dale Tallon gave away Reilly Smith and a fourth-round pick so McPhee would take Jonathan Marchessault. The future Conn Smythe winner, coming off a breakout 30-goal season, teamed with Smith and William Karlsson to get Vegas to the Final in Year 1.

The Ducks traded Shea Theodore to Vegas so the Knights would pick Clayton Stoner over the unprotected Josh Manson and Sami Vatanen.

The Wild gave away Alex Tuch, who became a Knights fan favorite and then part of the Jack Eichel trade, and a conditional third-rounder so the Knights would take Erik Haula over Matt Dumba.

The Blue Jackets traded their first-rounder in 2017, a third-rounder in 2019, and David Clarkson’s contract so the Knights would take Karlsson over Josh Anderson or Joonas Korpisalo.

Owner Bill Foley made a promise: playoffs in three years, the Stanley Cup in six. Sure, the Knights had a clean cap sheet, favorable expansion rules, and a player-friendly destination city. But they also took big swings — the Eichel trade, the trade with Ottawa, the signing of Alex Pietrangelo — and kept churning players and coaches until they found the right mix.

They were set up to be bold, acted that way, and were rewarded for it.

Other thoughts on the Cup Final:

▪ The Bruins tenderized the Panthers. Coach Paul Maurice said in the aftermath of Game 5 that the bulk of his team’s ailments happened in the first round, including the broken foot that Aaron Ekblad played through. Ekblad also separated both of his shoulders and tore an oblique. He missed one game. Brandon Montour had a torn shoulder labrum. Radko Gudas had a high ankle sprain. They kept playing. Most critically, Matthew Tkachuk, who missed Game 5, broke his sternum in Game 3.

“We are going to have a hell of a time making it back to the playoffs next year,” Maurice said.

▪ Like that of his brother, Vegas GM Kelly McCrimmon’s name will go on the Cup. Brad McCrimmon, the tough blue liner who broke in with the Bruins before winning the Cup with the Flames in 1989, perished in the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl plane crash in 2011.

▪ The NHL does its Cup celebration better than other major sports. Let the commissioner say a few words about the owner, then present the trophy to the players. The guy wearing the “C” should be the focus, not those in the C-suites.

▪ Eichel became a Cup champ in his first full season in Vegas, and was arguably the team’s best player in the postseason. Meanwhile, the Sabres’ playoff drought continues. Bruce Cassidy used Patrice Bergeron as a model for Eichel’s development, and it showed — Eichel was everywhere.

▪ Eichel wasn’t the only one shoving it to the haters. Phil Kessel, scratched for the final two rounds, was interviewed by a few Toronto reporters on the ice after the clincher. Kessel, via The Hockey News: “Takes me back to my Toronto days. You guys said I couldn’t win, and now I’m a three-time champ. Remember that.” Kessel, an unrestricted free agent this summer, might have played his final game.

▪ The Panthers were among the teams that called Cassidy right after he was fired by the Bruins. Moments after finishing off the Panthers, he was reminded that the following day was the one-year anniversary of him signing his Vegas contract.

“I’m gonna celebrate,” he deadpanned, pounding his fist on the table.

A guy who was fired from his first job — in Washington in 2003 by McPhee, who won with him 20 years later — and was turfed by his favorite team, turned around and joined the exclusive club of Stanley Cup champs.

It’s a great story — one that plays well everywhere outside of Boston.

Let go partly because his firm hand had worn on some of the Bruins, Cassidy pushed the right buttons in Vegas. “He brought an intensity to our locker room that maybe we needed,” Stone told TNT’s Darren Pang after Game 5.

I have a picture in my phone from Jan. 12, 2019. It is a picture of a picture, actually, that was hanging on the wall outside the cafeteria at ScotiaBank Arena in Toronto. Cassidy and I were chatting in the hall pregame, and he stopped when it caught his eye.

The picture is of Punch Imlach, the Maple Leafs’ coach, after winning the Stanley Cup in 1967. The trophy, about half of its inscription space blank, sits at his feet, which are propped up on a desk. Wearing a shirt and tie, Imlach is smiling and taking a sip of bubbly. On the chalkboard behind him, he has written in fancy cursive, “No Practice Tomorrow.”

It’s a black-and-white vision of coaching bliss. Cassidy can go ahead and re-create it, in full color.

Meanwhile, Bruins coach Jim Montgomery was back in his office this past week.

He has reconsidered matchups he leaned into against the Panthers. He said he has been reading about body language, to better understand where his players’ heads are in pressure situations. He hasn’t gotten over the Bruins’ first-round flameout.

“It’s going to stay with me forever,” he said on the Raw Knuckles podcast with West Roxbury tough guy Chris Nilan. “I think we had the team to win it all.”

Montgomery said he wouldn’t have done anything different with Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci, whose usage down the stretch was “scientifically” calculated. He didn’t feel he was putting Jeremy Swayman in an impossible situation in Game 7.

“If you know Swayman, he has incredible swagger about him and a confidence,” Montgomery said. “Whether it’s Game 1 or Game 7, he’s going to get the job done.”

Whatever answers Montgomery has found — is finding — this summer will reveal themselves next season. Until then:

“It lingers with us,” Montgomery said. “We own it. We know we lost to a good team in Florida. They’re in the Final. But you’re up, 3-1. You find a way to close that out.

“We’ve got to move forward. What do we learn from this? Especially our young core players, that are going to be here a long time. How do we all grow from this and make sure that whatever happens in the regular season, the next time we get to playoffs, we own the moment like did for an incredible regular season?

“For whatever reason — and I’ve watched the games back — we didn’t play as fast as we did in the regular season. Those are things that are going to eat at me until we start playing again next year.”

The Stanley Cup has been handed out. The offseason is here. From cap-tight teams such as Boston, Vancouver, and Tampa Bay walking tightropes, to wide-open teams such as New Jersey, Carolina, and Seattle strolling into July 1 ready to make deals, this summer should be wild. Here are five especially fascinating situations to follow:

Winnipeg — No team has more star power that wants out, or more opportunity to remake a roster that has fallen short of expectations.

First on the agenda should be 24-year-old center Pierre-Luc Dubois, a restricted free agent who told management he doesn’t want to stay. Montreal is the obvious destination, but the Canadiens won’t be pushed into a Jet-friendly deal. There should be a market for Dubois, who is due a $6 million qualifying offer and reportedly wants closer to $9 million on a long-term deal. Los Angeles makes a lot of sense. Carolina and Colorado are still looking for No. 2 centers, the latter after potentially losing J.T. Compher in free agency. Minnesota would need to shed salary, but it desperately needs an offensive-minded center for Kirill Kaprizov.

Netminder Connor Hellebuyck, who turned 30 last month, enters the last year of a six-year, $37 million deal ($6.167 million per year) and like Dubois has told management he wants out. He would be an upgrade for nearly every team in the league, and makes short money for a perennial Vezina Trophy finalist. Five teams immediately come to mind: the Kings, who could grab him for a Cup run and let him walk; the Sabres and Devils need top-flight netminding, and have plenty of cap space and assets; the Senators are in a tighter spot, but a true No. 1 goalie would likely push them into contention; and the Flyers could power their rebuild with a Carter Hart-for-Hellebuyck swap.

Mark Scheifele, a legitimate No. 1 center who scored 42 goals this past season, should have interest from a bunch of teams (10 are on his no-trade list). The Jets’ forward group would be in deep without him. The team looks like it is moving on from Blake Wheeler, who has a five-team trade list. Scheifele, 30, makes just $6.125 million next season, the 36-year-old Wheeler $8.25 million. Also possible rentals for someone next season: rugged forward Nino Neiderreiter and defensemen Brenden Dillon and Dylan DeMelo.

Detroit — The Red Wings have some $30 million in cap space, with a bunch of holes and a franchise-legend general manager (Steve Yzerman) who has seemingly grown a bit unhappy with how his plan is progressing.

Forwards? Alex DeBrincat or Clayton Keller could join captain Dylan Larkin, who signed an eight-year, $69 million extension. The 25-year-old DeBrincat’s $9 million qualifying offer is less appealing than the 24-year-old Keller’s deal, which carries a $7.15 million cap hit through 2028. Both are Midwestern guys; DeBrincat is a Michigan native, Keller is from the St. Louis area.

Defense? The Red Wings are in a good position to make a run at Erik Karlsson. The likely Norris Trophy winner, signed through 2027 at $11.5 million, could waive his no-trade clause to run the power play (both giving Moritz Seider a break from that duty, and helping teach the young German a few things offensively).

Goaltender? They could make Hellebuyck a long-term solution, though handing a multiyear deal to one of the heaviest-workload goalies in the league doesn’t seem like an Yzerman move.

Ottawa — Mostly for the DeBrincat situation and fresh ideas coming from the new ownership group — a bidding reportedly won by transportation magnate Michael Andlauer, rather than contenders Snoop Dogg, Ryan Reynolds or Abel Tesfaye, the Canadian pop star formerly known as The Weeknd.

No matter who’s running the show, DeBrincat doesn’t want to sign with Ottawa long term, according to the Ottawa Sun, so the Senators opted to take him to arbitration, trying to get a discount on his $9 million qualifying offer. If they win, they can get as much as 15 percent, or a one-year, $7.65 million deal. That would make it even easier to trade him.

They’re also hurting for a netminder, as noted. What is Stanley Cup champion (and UFA) Adin Hill worth on the open market?

Buffalo — As usual, the Sabres left a lot of points on the table this past season, and they’re looking to turn a hot few months into a fully competitive season.

Goaltending would go a long way toward that. The Sabres were shoddy in net behind Eric Comrie, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, and the since-retired Craig Anderson. Northeastern product Devon Levi is the future, but are the Sabres committed to the 21-year-old for a full season? They might need an ace to break him in, and help the team push Boston, Toronto, Tampa Bay, and Florida in the Atlantic Division.

Hellebuyck wouldn’t be a long-term fit there, since he’d block Levi, but for a few years, there are few better solutions (John Gibson wouldn’t be one of them) to pair with Levi.

On defense, Owen Power needs a partner. Connor Clifton could be had in free agency, or DeMelo could be a trade fit.

Toronto — Of course. New GM Brad Treliving was hopeful to convince Auston Matthews to stay, and the hiring of Matthews’s childhood hero, Shane Doan, (with whom Treliving worked in Arizona) as a special adviser won’t be the last of his ideas.

July 1 is when full no-move clauses for Matthews and Mitch Marner kick in, and William Nylander earns partial protection. Matthews and Nylander, entering the last years of their deals, can sign extensions then.

By all indications, Matthews wants to remain a Maple Leaf. Smart money has him signing for a few more years — at perhaps $13 million-$14 million per — and try his luck again when the salary cap rises. It is expected to go up by $1 million this season, and $9 million over the next two seasons.

Will Matthews see what Jack Eichel and Matthew Tkachuk did previously — and Dubois and Hellebuyck are doing now — and tell management they’d better find a trading partner, because he won’t sign long term? No indication there. But Treliving, who dealt Tkachuk from Calgary to Florida last summer, could reshape Kyle Dubas’s Core Four approach and be aggressive in dealing Matthews — and/or Nylander, who will seek a significant raise from his current $6.96 million cap hit.

Fortune, Vegas reminds us, favors the bold.

The Devils, who agreed to an eight-year, $63 million extension with Jesper Bratt, got good value ($7.875 million) for a winger who put up 73 points in each of the last two seasons. They entered the weekend still talking with Timo Meier, a restricted free agent due a $10 million qualifying offer … Vancouver hopes 102-point center Elias Pettersson, a restricted free agent next summer, will stick around. His agent, J.P. Barry, and David Pastrnak took a patient approach last year, with Pastrnak’s contract expiring in Boston … Another reminder we’re getting old: Jason Spezza is now an assistant general manager, hired by Dubas in Pittsburgh. Spezza is 40. Dubas is 37 … The Blues added former Merrimack forward Michael Babcock, 28, as a skills coach. Babcock’s father, Mike, is reportedly the incoming coach for Columbus ... The Metropolitan Division now has four of the 12 winningest coaches of all time: the elder Babcock (Columbus), Peter Laviolette (New York Rangers), Lindy Ruff (New Jersey), and John Tortorella (Philadelphia).

Matt Porter can be reached at matthew.porter@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter: @mattyports.