I also don't get how anyone can say the NHL gifted Vegas anything. They did have some nice expansion rules to work with... but even after their expansion draft, it's not like people were picking them to even make the playoffs.
However, That's probably because the players probably don't get enough credit, imo. As someone said above... they have a legit first line and it should have been easy enough to see before the season started. Got Neal (who had scored 30-40 goals before in this league.. easily 20+), Marchessault (Just came off of a 30 goal season), Karlsson (who it seemed everybody knew was going to be solid), and the list goes on for defense and of course MAF in goal. I'd love for the Yotes to have at least ONE 30 goal scorer on the team.
The Vegas front office did a fantastic job picking up the necessary pieces to not only build for the future, but be able to win every night. If people want to be mad, they should be mad at the teams who let some quality players go to Vegas ... or coaches (lookin at you Florida... how did you lose both Marchessault and Gallant?!). Would I have picked them to be in the Stanley Cup Finals? Nope. But it shouldn't have been such a huge surprise that they'd be good with the team they were able to put together.