The Vegas Golden Knights are proving to be as popular at the merchandise table as they are in Sin City.
The NHL expansion team has been a hot ticket all season at T-Mobile Arena and that has continued during the Golden Knights鈥� deep playoff run.
With goalie Marc-Andre Fleury鈥檚 jersey leading the way in sales, Golden Knights gear is also flying off the shelves.
Specific numbers weren鈥檛 immediately available but Nirva Milord, the NHL鈥檚 senior director of corporate communications, said that the team鈥檚 overall North American sales have been very strong.
鈥淭he Vegas Golden Knights are in the top five in merch sales all season,鈥� she said Tuesday in an email. 鈥滿arc-Andre Fleury is tops among players in playoffs merch sales.鈥�
Fleury, a three-time Stanley Cup champion in Pittsburgh, was not protected by the Penguins in last year鈥檚 expansion draft. He has helped anchor the Golden Knights and gave the first-year squad some immediate star power.
The Vegas success story reads like a Hollywood script.
A random mix of journeymen, up-and-comers and castoffs quickly meshed as a team, delivered results on the ice, and provided one of the top storylines of the season.
Few hockey observers predicted that Vegas would roll through the campaign and topple the Los Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks in the first two rounds of the playoffs. The Golden Knights will host the Jets in Game 3 of the Western Conference final on Wednesday after splitting the first two games of the best-of-seven series in Winnipeg.
Along the way, cash registers have been ringing with sales of hats, hoodies, sweatshirts, T-shirts and jerseys adorned with the knight helmet symbol and the team鈥檚 steel grey, black, gold and red colours.
Marvin Ryder, a marketing professor at McMaster University, feels there are several reasons for the strong merchandise sales, including the lack of competition from other top sport leagues in Las Vegas and the fact hockey fans and youngsters will flock to anything new when it comes to gear.
But where the franchise really delivered, Ryder said, was with the creation of a modern, powerful logo coupled with an attractive colour scheme.
鈥淲hatever graphic identity team they hired, they knocked it right out of the park,鈥� Ryder said from Hamilton.
It helps to have a winning hockey team too.
鈥淯ltimately it鈥檚 how the fans embrace it,鈥� Ryder said. 鈥淚n this case, I鈥檓 going to say it鈥檚 more about (being) lucky. You had all the pieces but they got them right the very first day. That鈥檚 the unusual part of the story. Normally it takes longer for the teams to find that combination of performance and the right-looking logo that people are proud to wear.
鈥淭hey got it right from Day 1.鈥�
Last month, the NHL reported that Fleury was fourth in jersey sales behind Toronto鈥檚 Auston Matthews, Pittsburgh鈥檚 Sidney Crosby and Edmonton鈥檚 Connor McDavid.
Gregory Strong, The Canadian Press
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