A behind-the-scenes look at what's happening in Vegas with the NHL's new expansion team
— --
Nothing about the Fidelity National Financial offices in Summerlin, Nevada -- which is about a 20-minute cab ride west from downtown Las Vegas -- screams "NHL hockey." But don't let that fool you.
In a boardroom on this pleasant Saturday in October, the men who represent the cornerstones of the NHL's new expansion franchise in Las Vegas have gathered to begin the painstaking process of building a team from nothing, one brick at a time.
Along one wall of a downstairs boardroom, part of the new office space created for the fledgling NHL team, are the rosters of every NHL team. Below them are the rosters of each team's respective American Hockey League franchise.
Over time, the board will become more refined. The contract status of all perspective players will be added, their injury statuses updated. The likelihood that they could be exposed in the expansion draft next June noted.
Most NHL teams have similar boards that allow their GMs and staff to track the competition. But what is happening here in Summerlin is unique.
Existing teams, for better or worse, have their own identity, a history that forms the bedrock of their reality and dictates how they move forward from day to day, month to month, year to year.
In these offices there is no such history. Instead, the 19 men who have gathered on this Saturday morning for the first mock expansion draft, bring with them experience, insight and a belief in their ability to assess talent. In the absence of anything tangible, that's all they have to go on -- that and the belief that the work done this weekend will ultimately produce something meaningful and successful.
"It's like being a pioneer," said David Conte, who parted ways with the New Jersey Devils in the summer of 2015 after having been with the organization for 31 years, 22 of them as the director of scouting.
He's now part of the pro scouting staff for the as-yet-unnamed expansion franchise in Las Vegas. "You're on the wagon train," he said. "You don't know what you're going to find."
And that's the beauty of what is unfolding in the desert. It's what makes this team the focal point of the hockey world even though they will not play a meaningful game for 365 days or so.
What will it be like?
How will it come together?
And, ultimately, will it work?
Everything falls from longtime Washington Capitals GM George McPhee, the first hockey hire by team owner Bill Foley. McPhee moved swiftly to assemble both a pro scouting staff which will be critical to preparing for the expansion draft and an amateur staff tasked with preparing for the regular NHL draft a few days after the expansion one.
McPhee's first major hire was assistant GM Kelly McCrimmon, a longtime major junior hockey owner, coach and manager. Scott Luce was brought on as the team's director of amateur scouting after a management shakeup with the Florida Panthers left him out of a job. Vaughn Karpan, longtime Montreal talent evaluator, was hired as director of player personnel. Conte came on board as a pro scout.? Jim McKenzie, a former NHLer and scout with Florida, will scout the pros as well.
And so on.
Each new member of the team is another piece of a puzzle whose overall shape remains indecipherable yet.
"First of all, George has done yeoman's work in a short period of time," said one veteran NHL executive.?
Some have been hired into jobs that represented promotions from their previous gigs. Others are getting a second chance. They are united in their understanding that this is, in some ways, unprecedented in pro sports, the chance to build the first professional sports team in Las Vegas.
"It is a rare opportunity, and that's what excites you," McPhee said. "Their buy-in and the atmosphere is about as positive as you could ever want."
Over the course of two days, McPhee's staff painstakingly went through the rosters of all 30 NHL teams -- and still found time to take in two preseason games at T-Mobile Arena, which will be home to the Vegas franchise.
During an interview in his suite at T-Mobile Arena, Foley marveled at the ease with which the group, all of whom were wearing name tags -- at least to start Saturday's sessions -- fell into a comfortable banter. Everyone in the room gets to share his opinion on how to go about building this team.
Former Vancouver Canucks assistant GM Laurence Gilman was on hand to help the scouting and management staff work through the ins and outs of the expansion lottery which will form the basis of the first Las Vegas roster.
Gilman helped the league develop the two options from which the current NHL teams will choose to protect players from the expansion draft: they can either protect eight skaters (forwards/defensemen) and a goalie or protect seven forwards, three defensemen and a goalie. As part of his presentation, Gilman offered his opinion on what strategy might best serve the NHL's 31st franchise. He also noted which teams he thinks might be vulnerable, either because they have too many no-movement clauses, making them ineligible for exposure, or simply have too many good players to protect all of them.
McPhee and his staff will or should benefit from extremely liberal expansion draft rules which will give them more options than any other expansion team in NHL history. Given the league's expansion history, it seems likely that there will be side deals cut in which the Las Vegas team agrees not to select certain exposed players in exchange for other assets.
A plethora of veteran players will be available, although some are at the end of long and/or overpriced contracts. McPhee and his staff will have to determine their value to the Vegas franchise, both as a member of the team in a leadership role and as a possible asset to be turned into something younger and more valuable down the road.
For instance, how will the? Anaheim Ducks?protect all of their young defensemen? Would one of their veteran forwards who has a no-movement clause be willing to be exposed? How will the Pittsburgh Penguins handle their goaltending situation, with 22-year-old? Matt Murray looking like the goaltender of the future but veteran? Marc-Andre Fleury protected by a no-movement clause? If things don't work out for Eric Staal (or the Minnesota Wild) could the former longtime? Carolina Hurricanes?captain be Vegas-bound?
During the weekend, the group collectively moves through all manner of scenarios, knowing that what they come up with now may have little bearing on what happens when they must submit their 30-player list on June 20, three days after teams must announce their protected lists. Such is the fluid nature of the game.
And so while they discuss specific players, they also mull the intangibles they hope will define the team's identity. They consider the character of the players who could be available. Is he tough enough? Does he skate well enough? Would he be a fit for the kind of up-tempo style the group imagines the Vegas squad playing?
"This was a chance for everybody to share their thoughts on players," McCrimmon said. "It will be the first of many."
By the time they must make final decisions on a first roster, it should almost be second nature, because they will have discussed the draft so often. By the time the expansion draft rolls around, if the Vegas staff has done its job, there will be few surprises about the players they will have at their disposal.
"There's so much to take from the experience (of the group), if you're willing to listen," Conte said. "It's embryonic, to say the least. Will it be without issues? Of course not."
But that's part of the beauty of this process too, isn't it?
"I've been on a team since I was six years old," Conte said. "I didn't like not being on a team."
Now he's part of a team tasked with building its team from scratch.
"It's a great challenge. It's a dream of any hockey person to put in that first brick," he said. "And there's also great responsibility. You only get one chance at this."
One chance at making a bold statement. One chance to become instantly competitive and secure a place in the marketplace.
"I think we're doing the right things," said McCrimmon, who had a chance to join another NHL club last summer but chose instead to stay one more season in Brandon with the Wheat Kings, the Western Hockey League team with whom he has been affiliated for 27 years. "I think we've hired the right people. Our people are excited for the challenge of doing this."
A large number of NHL scouts were in Las Vegas for a pair of exhibition games prior to the start of the regular season. The joke was that the scouts didn't want to miss out on a trip to Vegas. But as they sat shoulder to shoulder with McPhee and his staff in the press box at T-Mobile Arena, there was something almost universal about their interest in the task in front of the Vegas group -- a kind of whimsical jealousy, if you will, about the opportunity that awaits those building the expansion team.
Imagine being part of that process, one veteran scout and executive said. To build something from nothing, to create a professional hockey team where there was nothing.
Imagine that, he said with the biggest of grins -- and then shook his head at the wonder of it.
Related Stories
ABC News Live