Just weeks after Las Vegas officially learned it would be home to an NHL team starting in the 2017-18 season, speculation immediately began on who the first GM of the franchise would be. The expansion draft for the Las Vegas team is next May, and the legwork needs to begin on who the team might be taking then as well as what their scouting staff will look like for next year’s draft in Chicago. And now, a name has been announced.
BREAKING: We have officially named George McPhee was our first general manager in team history! pic.twitter.com/Lirkzla6BM
— x-Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) July 13, 2016
To the shock of very few, former Capitals GM and New York Islanders adviser George McPhee is the man. McPhee apparently beat out former Coyotes GM Don Maloney and current Penguins AGM Jason Botterill, among others.
McPhee took over the Capitals in 1997-98, and in his first season lead the team to the Stanley Cup Final, still its only trip in franchise history. Under his watch, the Capitals won the Southeast division seven times and also set the franchise record for points in 2009-2010 with 121. He drafted Alexander Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom, among other names that form the backbone of one of the strongest teams currently in the league, but they could never fully break through under his watch since 1998.
Experience played a large role in the decision for owner Bill Foley, and experience is not something McPhee lacks at all. He’s also been advising Foley since he was part of Vancouver’s ownership group back in the early 90’s when McPhee was in the Canucks hockey ops department.
The new team will be given every chance to succeed right away as the expansion draft rules favor them getting some very good talent and they’ll also be given the third highest odds of winning the draft lottery next year, and will pick third in every subsequent round of the draft.
Now that the team has a GM, next up is a name, uniform and colors, but since this is the NHL, who knows when those are coming.
