"I thought the city could support a team, every city would like one, but I didn't think it'd take off like it did. It was unreal."
Quinney spent the past season with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, the AHL affiliate of the Pittsburgh Penguins. As a forward, Quinney played 57 games, finishing the season with 33 points, including 14 goals and 19 assists.
The pedigree runs deep for Quinney. His father played professionally for 16 seasons, including parts of three with the Quebec Nordiques in the NHL, and five seasons for the Thunder. With the Thunder he was named to the IHL All-Star team in 1994, in a season he scored 55 goals and tacked on 53 assists.
Ken Quinney finished his career in Germany, which is where Gage Quinney began skating at the age of four or five. The family liked Las Vegas from the Thunder days, and according to Gage Quinney, just never wanted to move permanently.
"My dad played professionally, that's really the reason I got into hockey," said Quinney, who works out with Golden Knights defenseman Deryk Engelland in the offseason.
Of that relationship, Quinney said, "To see how hard he works in the offseason, it shows what it takes to make it."
Quinney realized he could make a serious run at making hockey a career when he left home at 15 to join the Phoenix Jr. Coyotes and excelled in his first season, scoring 29 goals and helping on 16 more in U-16 play. He returned to the Las Vegas Storm for a U-18 season, scoring 24 goals and 16 assists, before joining the Prince Albert Raiders of the Western Hockey League in 2013.
Eventually, he wound up on the Kelowna Rockets of the WHL, which he helped win a WHL Championship in 2015 in a feat he calls his best hockey memory. He finished the regular season that year with 10 goals and 21 assists in 38 games.
"Winning the Western Hockey League so far," he said. "The whole Memorial Cup was a blast."
He scored four goals in five games during the 2015 Memorial Cup.
In his final season in the WHL, he split time between Kelowna and the Kamloops Blazers, scoring a combined 29 goals and 28 assists.
Prior to joining the WBS Penguins last season, he played for the Penguin's ECHL affiliate Wheeling Nailers, tallying 44 points in 45 games.
Now signed by his hometown team, Quinney is living a dream most youth player only live out in their driveways. The feat is even more impressive considering it's a team based in Nevada.
"People would ask me where I'm from and when I said Nevada they'd looked at me like I said the wrong city," Quinney said. "Every hockey player has a dream of playing for their hometown team and now I get an opportunity to compete for that chance."
