Las Vegas Hockey: Washington Capitals West
As expected, George McPhee is bringing in some of his old crew, thus making the early days of the Las Vegas Hockey Franchise look a little bit like the Washington Capitals. I consider this a good thing.
One reason George McPhee was tapped by the Las Vegas owner Bill Foley is that McPhee had built a remarkable organization in Washington, not only with the players on the ice but the front office and hockey scouting staffs too had a fine reputation.
This last week the (still as yet nameless) Las Vegas Hockey team poached Katy Boettinger and Wil Nichol from the Capitals.
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Boettinger served as Director of Team Operations, but has a new title as Director of Hockey Administration. Okay, I am not enough of an HR geek to know the difference in the two titles, but I will expect it is some kind of promotion. And with more scouts and others coming on-line the team is going to need a lot more help, not only in marketing but in HR and also the corporate travel folks who are going to need to arrange flights, hotel rooms and expenses for a small army scooting about the globe in search of human pieces to our roster. I expect Boettiger will have her hand in managing at least some of that.
But the hire of Wil Nichol is definitely a step up. Nichol was a hockey player scout with the Washington Capitals, working for several years on McPhee’s scouting staff. Now Nichol is the Las Vegas Director of Player Development – read: boss scout guy. He is 42 with a fair amount of experience scouting. Time to step up, young sir.
So it is not as exciting as covering a draft, or a free agent rumor, or some surprise, blockbuster trades as have been happening around the NHL in recent weeks. But these front office moves by Foley and McPhee are just as important, maybe more important, in developing what the Las Vegas Hockey Franchise will become. And since Bill Foley has stated that he is down to the final four for names, and hints that rolling out the name may now not come until October it is all us poor hockey fans can do for now.
For now.
Meanwhile as my wife is glued to the television watching the Rio Olympic Game coverage, I will be looking to see what is happening at the Ivan Hlinka Memorial Cup starting Monday.With luck, we’ll get some news on some young talent who could be available in the 2017 Entry draft and part of the future roster of the Las Vegas Hockey team.
But before that, McPhee and Foley will keep building their version of Washington Capitals West.