Fans armour themselves in Knights gear

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 TMobile Arena and that has continued during the Golden Knights’ deep playoff run. With goalie MarcAndre Fleury’s jersey leading the way in sales, Golden Knights gear is also flying off the shelves.

Specific numbers weren’t immediately available, but Nirva Milord, the NHL’s senior director of corporate communications, said the team’s overall North American sales have been strong.

“The Vegas Golden Knights are in the top five in merch sales all season,” she said Tuesday in an email. “Marc-Andre Fleury is tops among players in playoffs merch sales.”

Few hockey observers predicted Vegas would roll through the campaign and topple the Los Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks in the first two rounds of the playoffs.

Marvin Ryder, a marketing professor at McMaster University in Hamilton, feels there are several reasons for the strong 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.

“Ultimately it’s how the fans embrace it,” Ryder said. “In this case, I’m going to say it’s more about (being) lucky. You had all the pieces, but they got them right the very first day. That’s 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.

“They got it right from Day 1.”