Las Vegas Sun

March 18, 2024

Las Vegas NHL team’s GM has the golden touch

McPhee

John Locher / AP

Vegas Golden Knights general manager George McPhee speaks during a news conference Wednesday, March 1, 2017, in Las Vegas. The NHL expansion team can now begin making trades and signing free agents for next season.

How the NHL expansion draft works

The Golden Knights’ roster will consist of:

• 14 forwards

• 9 defenders

• 3 goaltenders

Other parameters:

• At least 20 players have to be under contract for 2017-18.

• The Golden Knights will select 30 players, one each from the NHL’s other 30 teams.

• Clubs can protect either 7 forwards, 3 defensemen and 1 goaltender, or 8 skaters regardless of position and 1 goaltender

• Players with two years or less experience and unsigned draft picks aren’t eligible.

• Protected lists from other teams are due June 17. The draft will take place over two days, with an official announcement of the selections on June 21.

George McPhee often begins his day in the same spot: Egg Works at Village Center in Summerlin. McPhee sits at the counter near the back of the restaurant, fiddling with his phone because his job running a NHL team never stops.

There, the Vegas Golden Knights general manager has found something many didn’t expect in Southern Nevada: local hockey fans interested in how McPhee constructs the city’s first major league sports franchise. Many aren’t shy about stopping to chat.

“I can’t imagine this city being anything other than one of the best pro cities in the country,” says McPhee, who was the Washington Capitals general manager for 17 seasons through April 2014. “I am being totally candid — I love the interest being expressed here. They are pleasant and polite, and not in a rush. (Egg Works) is a place where they like to talk hockey.”

Most questions directed toward McPhee focus on constructing the expansion team’s roster. Which players are they targeting? What style will they play? Who will they target in the expansion draft and free agency?

There’s no need to remind McPhee that most expansion teams are painfully bad, especially early. The Florida Panthers reached the Stanley Cup finals in three years, but they are the exception. Most teams are like the Columbus Blue Jackets, who needed eight seasons to make the playoffs and struggled to attract players because the city, like Las Vegas, is a nontraditional hockey market.

But given how the expansion draft is formatted, there should be plenty of capable players in their prime. McPhee and his staff have executed at least four mock drafts to prepare for the June event, and they expect to make a splash in free agency because Las Vegas offers great weather, affordable housing and no state income tax.

“We are going to appeal to a lot of players, a lot of coaches,” McPhee said. “Everyone will want to come here. We may have the best setup a team has had to begin with in two state-of-the-art facilities, one for games (T-Mobile Arena) and one for practice (a $25 million facility in Summerlin).”

Las Vegas only supports winning teams is a concept McPhee understands from his time in Washington. When he arrived there in 1997, the franchise had just 2,900 season-ticket holders, he said. But after reaching the Stanley Cup finals in his first season and becoming one of the league’s powers, the Capitals have built a streak of more than 300 sold-out games. Here, more than 10,000 season tickets have been sold.

“People didn’t seem to care about the hockey team in Washington,” McPhee said. “Now, Washington has sold out for eight straight seasons and it has become a heck of a market. We can establish that culture here immediately. Culture matters. It’s not cliché. We have a plan, and that plan includes finding the best players we can.”

Scouts and other team officials have traveled the globe evaluating talent and imagining how players fit into the Golden Knights’ plan. They are searching for the right mix of players — some to contribute immediately and younger players to develop.

Team owner Bill Foley this month paid the final installment of the Golden Knights’ $500 million in expansion fees, meaning McPhee could attend league meetings and be involved in trades. Unlike his colleagues in other franchises, McPhee isn’t preoccupied with the ongoing season — there’s no playoff push to be made for the Golden Knights at the moment.

“Right now, we have time on our side. You don’t get time in professional sports,” he said.

“(McPhee is) so good at just sitting back and listening,” said Golden Knights Vice President Murray Craven, who spent nearly two decades as a player in the NHL. “He doesn’t lead the conversations. Our scouts that are out there on a nightly basis lead the conversations. That’s important, because those are the guys who are seeing the players, and George has to be able to filter through that and collect the right information.”

Even if it’s from diners at Egg Works.

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