Bill Foley’s proclamation seemed preposterous at the time, as gold confetti and fireworks exploded into the neon-drenched sky off the Vegas Strip on the night the Knights became Golden in 2016.

“Playoffs in three years, Stanley Cup within six,” the NHL’s newest owner said.

Not so much now, huh?

His Vegas Golden Knights became the first team through to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs on Tuesday night after making quick work of a Chicago Blackhawks squad that picked apart Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and the Edmonton Oilers in the play-in round.

Vegas has lost just once (7-1-0) since joining the Edmonton bubble, now cruising along at an 18-3-0 clip that dates back to before the pandemic pause.

The West’s No. 1 seed isn’t the feel-good group of Golden Misfits that came together for a magical run before falling to the Washington Capitals in the 2018 Stanley Cup Final.

They skate like a juggernaut now, and are three rounds away from making good on Foley’s claim.

“They have a lot of different elements to their team,” Chicago coach Jeremy Colliton said after Tuesday night’s season-ending loss. “They have some offensive guys who are dangerous whenever they’re on the ice. But I think for the most part, they play a tremendous two-way game and that’s really hard to play against.

“Then they have their depth guys that are able to tilt the ice and hold you down in your defensive zone and out-change you.

“They are a physical team; they make you pay a price to make plays and they just come at you over and over again. I think their discipline within their team game is outstanding. They make you earn what you’re going to get.”

The first question posed after Foley called for a Stanley Cup within six years before even picking a player was: “Have you seen what the other NHL expansion franchises have done?”

Now, perhaps the more appropriate question is: Are the Golden Knights the best expansion franchise in pro sports history?

It’s one worth pondering, even if Vegas doesn’t turn Lord Stanley’s silver chalice Golden this season.

Numerous franchises have enjoyed success in short order. The Arizona Diamondbacks won the World Series in 2001, in their fourth season of existence. It took the Philadelphia Flyers just seven seasons to hoist the Stanley Cup, becoming the first team outside the Original Six to win it in 1973-74. The New York Islanders and New York Mets each needed eight seasons to win their first titles as expansion franchises.

But none of those teams accomplished the same immediate and consistent results, right from the beginning.

The Golden Knights have now qualified for the Stanley Cup playoffs in each of their first three seasons.

To put that in perspective: From San Jose in 1991-92 to Columbus and Minnesota in 2000-01, the previous nine NHL expansion franchises combined to qualify for the playoffs just three times total in their first three seasons (three out of 27 seasons).

Yes, critics will claim that the Golden Knights had the most lenient expansion draft requirements to use as their advantage. That is true, but the argument could be made it still wasn’t enough to warrant the $500 million price tag – more than five times more than any entrance fee that any of those other nine teams paid.

Then-GM George McPhee pressed all the pressure points in the drafting process. From Shea Theodore to Alex Tuch, the Golden Knights were built on the back of busted decisions by many of McPhee’s counterparts.

Even through the unfair lens of hindsight, the deals are worth revisiting. The Panthers traded Reilly Smith to ensure that the Golden Knights took Jonathan Marchessault. The Penguins gave up a second-round pick so the Knights could grab their franchise goalie in Marc-Andre Fleury. The Blue Jackets dealt their first-round pick and a second-round pick, along with William Karlsson, in part to dump David Clarkson’s contract. The Jets gave up their first-rounder to protect Toby Enstrom and others.

Most of the moves since then have been equally impressive.

When teams began to sniff around assistant GM Kelly McCrimmon, McPhee elevated himself to president of hockey operations and passed the post on to McCrimmon to keep the band together.

In the past two years, the Golden Knights have acquired a franchise cornerstone in Mark Stone, a defenceman with Cup pedigree in Alec Martinez, and goalie Robin Lehner – who has spelled Fleury and picked up five of Vegas’ seven postseason wins this summer. It might be fair to knock trading Nick Suzuki and Tomas Tatar for Max Pacioretty, except Pacioretty led the team in scoring this season.

The Golden Knights are one of the destination places to play in the NHL; they are entrenched and immensely popular in the local community; they enjoy one of the best practice facilities in the league and treat their players well; and they recently purchased and moved an AHL team to town (the Henderson Silver Knights) to better their development process.

Just about the only complaint one could make of this model franchise is that they’ve already run into a salary cap squeeze in Year 3 after starting with a blank slate.

Two problems with that: the Golden Knights have legitimized the crunch because they’ve proven to be a true Stanley Cup contender, spending to fulfill Foley’s proclamation. And two, almost all of their roster is locked up for next season, giving them another kick at the Cup, too.

That’s a scary thought for the rest of the NHL. Godspeed to Ron Francis and the Seattle Kraken, who now have the toughest act in pro sports to follow.

Contact Frank Seravalli on Twitter: @frank_seravalli​