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Vegas center Cody Eakin talks with Gary Lawless about his hockey journey, starting with his Winnipeg roots through Game 7 in San Jose. Eakin offers his thoughts about instant replay in hockey, his Las Vegas experience and playing for Gerard Gallant. Eakin tells stories about traveling and describes a perfect summer day on the lake.

The Vegas Golden Knights will host its third Development Camp presented by Martin-Harris Construction from June 25-29 at City National Arena. While the team's prospects spend the week training with the NHL staff, fans can come to the open ice sessions to watch the next generation of Golden Knights.

Current prospects who were either drafted or signed by the Golden Knights will skate at camp, in addition to the crop of young players selected at the 2019 NHL Draft in Vancouver and - as we have seen in past years - potentially college and junior free agents as well. Fans will have the chance to see the growth draft picks from the last two drafts and give a warm welcome to the newest Golden Knights prospects.

At last year's camp, 2018 draft picks Paul Cotter (115th overall) and Brandon Kruse (135th overall) were among the new players who quickly learned what it takes to be a Golden Knights prospect.

On June 19, the hockey world will turn its eyes to Las Vegas for the 2019 NHL Awards.

The Golden Knights will be represented by Selke Trophy nominee Mark Stone who is up for the award given annually to the league's top defensive forward. Stone was acquired by the Golden Knights on Feb. 25 and notched 11 points (5G, 6A) in 18 games to finish the regular season. He paced the NHL in takeaways with 122 during the season. It's his first nomination for a season-end award.

Video: Stone Talks Selke Trophy

At the 2018 NHL Awards, the Golden Knights cleaned up as all four individual nominees from the team earned their respective awards. Forward William Karlsson captured the Lad Byng Trophy as the league's most gentlemanly player. Defenseman Deryk Engelland was named the Mark Messier Leadership Award winner. Head Coach Gerard Gallant earned the Jack Adams Award as the league's top coach while George McPhee received General Manager of the Year honors.

Fans will also recognize some of the presenters with Vegas ties who will announce the winners of the NHL's prestigious awards. Las Vegas native and Jeopardy! champion James Holzhauer will present an award as will fellow Las Vegan and NASCAR champion Kurt Busch. Saturday Night Live's Kenan Thompson will host the ceremony which begins at 5 p.m. PT at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino.

Tickets to the awards are available here.

The Vegas Golden Knights will make their first selection in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft using the 17th overall pick.

The pick is the fourth highest selection in franchise history after the team picked sixth, 13th and 15th during the first round of the 2017 draft in Chicago. Vegas did not have a first-round pick in the 2018 draft in Dallas after flipping the selection to the Detroit Red Wings.

The 17th overall pick has been used to select some eventual NHL regulars in recent seasons. In 2015, the Winnipeg Jets selected Kyle Connor with the 17th pick. Connor has skated in 178 games, has 128 points (67G, 61A) and finished fourth in Calder Trophy voting for rookie of the year after posting 57 points (31G, 26A) in his rookie season.

San Jose selected Tomas Hertl with their first-round pick in 2012. He's gone on to post 244 points (116G, 128A) in 405 games with the Sharks. Four years earlier, defenseman Jake Gardiner went 17th overall as well and has accrued 245 points (45G, 200A) in 551 appearances.

In 2003, the New Jersey Devils acquired forward Zach Parise with the 17th pick. Parise played 502 games with New Jersey and racked up 410 points (194G, 216A) including a 94-point campaign (45G, 49A) in 2008-09 which earned him a top-three nomination for the Lady Byng Trophy. After spending the last seven seasons with the Minnesota Wild, Parise is closing in on his 1,000th NHL game as he's hit the NHL ice 946 times with 746 points (361G, 385A).

Barret Jackman was selected 17th overall in 1999 by the St. Louis Blues and skated in a total of 876 games during 14 seasons and collected 186 points (29G, 157A) from the blue line. He's the only player to go 17th in the draft and win the Calder Trophy as the best first-year player in the NHL when he did so in 2002-03.

At the end of the 2017-18 season, the experiment that was the Vegas Golden Knights franchise passed with flying colors.

As the team exceeded expectations, so too did defenseman Shea Theodore. After proving his abilities in the inaugural season, Theodore was a restricted free agent heading into the 2018-19 campaign. On Sept. 25, Theodore put pen to paper on a seven-year contract which cemented his place on the Golden Knights roster long-term. With the signing behind him, Theodore went to work on a career season.

Theodore skated in 79 games and recorded career-highs in goals (12), assists (25) and points (37). Those totals were the highest among Golden Knights defensemen and his 202 shots ranked second overall on the team. With new single-season bests behind him, Theodore is focused on improving on those numbers in 2019-20.

"I want to be a bigger leader on this team," Theodore said. "I want to contribute as much as I can. This summer it's going to be a lot of refocusing and getting in the gym so I can do all that next year."

VEGAS (June 7, 2019) - The Vegas Golden Knights are now accepting applications for the Golden Aces cheer & promo team and the Knights Guard ice crew presented by The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas for the 2019-20 season. All positions are part-time and will be a part of creating the game night atmosphere inside T-Mobile Arena.

Applications can be found here and will be accepted until 12 p.m. PT on Monday, June 24. All candidates who pass the initial application phase will be notified and invited to auditions via email by Monday, July 1.

The Knights Guard presented by The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas is the game night ice crew at T-Mobile Arena. All candidates must have above-average skating ability. Auditions for the Knights Guard will be held July 10 at City National Arena and will have both an on-ice and dryland portion. All participants must wear hockey skates; no figure skates or goalie skates will be allowed.

The Chicago Wolves earned a split in the first two games of the Calder Cup Finals against the Charlotte Checkers and gear up to host the next three games at Allstate Arena. The AHL affiliate of the Vegas Golden Knights looks to defend its home ice in Game 3 at 5 p.m. PT Wednesday on NHL Network.

THE SERIES SO FAR
In the series opener, Stefan Matteau scored his second goal of the playoffs in the first period, but Chicago found itself trailing 3-1 after 20 minutes. Zac Leslie and Zach Whitecloud scored in the second period and the 3-3 tie lasted into overtime. Matteau netted his second goal of the game at 5:30 of the extra session to lift the Wolves to a 4-3 win in Game 1.

In the second game, Keegan Kolesar scored in the first period and Gage Quinney scored twice in the second, but the teams were deadlocked at 3-3 after 40 minutes for the second night in a row. The Checkers netted two late goals to come away with a 5-3 victory and a split of the first two contests.

Marc-Andre Fleury's back-to-back shutouts against the Calgary Flames and San Jose Sharks on Nov. 23-24 have been selected as the Best Moment from 2018-19 by Vegas Golden Knights fans.

Fleury's standout performance won the Best Moment Bracket after earning 56 percent of the vote in the final round to top Jonathan Marchessault's penalty shot goal in overtime on Oct. 28 against the Ottawa Senators.

With the Golden Knights starting to pick up steam after a slow start to the season, the team hunkered down at home during Thanksgiving weekend to host the Calgary Flames and San Jose Sharks in back-to-back games. Fleury dazzled against Calgary as he stopped 28 shots to lead Vegas to a 2-0 win. The next night, Fleury made 33 saves for his second clean sheet in a row as the Golden Knights topped the Sharks, 6-0.

As the Vegas Golden Knights prepare to select a new crop of prospects at the 2019 NHL Entry Draft in Vancouver from June 21-22, the team's draft picks from the past two drafts have taken steps closer to playing in the NHL.

Vegas has made 20 picks in franchise history which started with 12 picks at the 2017 draft in Chicago. The team added eight prospects at the 2018 draft in Dallas. Golden Knights prospects played all around the world in 2018-19 for club teams and in international tournaments.

Below are all of Vegas' draft picks since 2017 by round with their 2018-19 team/status.

The best hockey executives trust their scouts when it comes to evaluating players. Still, when it comes down to calling in a name on the draft floor, it's comforting for a GM to know as much about that player as possible. This is where the NHL Scouting Combine comes in.

GMs spend most of their time watching their own team which leaves very little time for traipsing around the globe to watch draft eligible players. Sure, there's video and off-season tournaments and quick in-season scouting trips. But a GM will likely see a player on his list once or twice while the scout who covers the region a player is located in will have seen that player as often as 10 times.

The combine offers a GM the opportunity to see players in the flesh. To hear them talk. Answer questions. Walk in and out of a room. It's a chance to get up close and personal with as many players as possible in a week's time.

With 103 draft eligible players in Buffalo this week for the combine, Kelly McCrimmon and George McPhee have the opportunity to sit with their scouts and read and listen to evaluations and then have the player walk in the room.