Las Vegas: McCrimmon Hire Official
The Las Vegas Hockey franchise outed the worst secret in the National Hockey League when they announced the hiring of Kelly McCrimmon as its new Assistant General Manager. It’s announcement quoted McCrimmon:
“Being part of the foundation of this new franchise is an incredible opportunity, and I am honored to have been selected as the assistant general manager to help build it into a successful team,” McCrimmon told the Las Vegas website. “I look forward to working with [GM] George [McPhee] and [principal owner] Bill [Foley] as we create a winning NHL franchise.”
This is such a smart hire, with McCrimmon being approached by a number of NHL teams in recent years. McCrimmon built the Brandon Wheat Kings as a Western Hockey League power as Coach, General Manager and Owner. Brandon won the WHL Championship trophy last season.
Even more than last season, McCrimmon has been a winner. Again, from the announcement:
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McCrimmon won the WHL championship twice, the Eastern Division 10 times, and the conference championship six times. He led the Wheat Kings to five Memorial Cup appearances (once as a player, twice as GM, and twice as GM and coach); was named WHL Executive of the Year in 1995, 2010 and 2015; and named CHL Executive of the Year in 2010. He was 423-223-36-38 over 10 seasons, the most wins in Brandon history, and served as an assistant for Canada at the 2016 IIHF World Junior Championship.
Yeah, good with players, knows team building, very savvy in the scouting and development of young players. My first question is how the transition will go from McCrimmon being a long time big fish in a small pod to a moderate-sized fish in a big one?
The second question is a fond hope. Evidently McCrimmon will continue as Owner of the Brandon Wheat Kings. Obviously GM and coaching duties will now fall on others. But do the Wheat Kings become the first minor level hockey team to become part of the Las Vegas Hockey developmental system?
The word is that McCrimmon will not have much time to get settled. He and McPhee are heading out to Europe to scout out the Ivan Hlinka Memorial Cup starting 8 August. It is a tournament of U-18 national teams, including most of the top 17 year-old players in the world.