McPhee, Golden Knights keeping their heads in game

The 2017-18 NHL season has passed its midway point and the 2018 NHL Trade Deadline on Feb. 26 is less than six weeks away. With that in mind, NHL.com is sitting down this week with some of the biggest names in the game. Today, Vegas Golden Knights general manager George McPhee talks about his team's successful first half and what that means for the rest of the season.
LAS VEGAS -- At about the halfway point of the Vegas Golden Knights' inaugural season, amid the excitement of their record-setting start, general manager George McPhee and his staff gathered …

A. On the Strip to celebrate.
B. In Cabo for vacay.
C. To plan the Stanley Cup parade.
D. For eight days of pro and amateur scouting meetings.
The answer, of course, is D.
The Golden Knights (29-11-3) are first in the Western Conference and second in the NHL standings but McPhee isn't putting limits on them.
But he isn't taking anything for granted, either. The second half should be tougher. There is so much more work to do.
RELATED: [Vegas not talking playoffs | Las Vegas turning into hockey town]
"We weren't expecting this," McPhee said. "Nobody could have expected this. It was a terrific first half.
"But that's all it is. We're trying to be the best we can be. We're trying to be a competitive hockey club. I have no idea what the second half is going to look like.
"Again, nobody knows what's going to transpire. We've got our fingers crossed, and we're going day to day hoping we can keep playing well."
The big question is how the first half affects plans for the second half and beyond.
Owner Bill Foley's vision was to make the Stanley Cup Playoffs in three years and win the Cup in six. The thought was McPhee would move pending unrestricted free agents before the NHL Trade Deadline on Feb. 26 to continue stockpiling assets for the future.
But McPhee has signed three pending UFAs -- forward Jonathan Marchessault and defensemen Deryk Engelland and Brayden McNabb -- and the Golden Knights are loaded with draft picks out to 2020 after maneuvering in and around the NHL Expansion Draft.
McPhee discussed that and more with NHL.com earlier this week.

On the Golden Knights at the midpoint

"It's what we were hoping to have in terms of being competitive. They work really hard. They're coachable. It feels like a team. [Coach Gerard Gallant has] done a good job of making it a team.
"And we're in the hunt for a playoff spot. We've said all along that if we're in the hunt, we're going to stay in the hunt, and if we're not in the hunt at the deadline, we'll do what teams that aren't in the hunt do. But we think it's very healthy for the franchise and for Las Vegas to be a competitive club, and we want to stay in the hunt."

On if the Golden Knights are for real

"Don't know if we're for real. We'll know at the end of the year. We've had a good start. We're at the midpoint. If we can continue to play well, then maybe we're for real.
"But we have our ways of evaluating the team analytically and just from front-office experience and watching them, and we're just trying to do what everyone else is doing. We're trying to win hockey games. We're going day by day and trying to win."

On where the Golden Knights stand with pending UFA forwards James Neal and David Perron and UFA defenseman Luca Sbisa

"We don't talk about contracts unless we have a contract to talk about. So to speculate about what might happen with certain individuals doesn't do us any good. If and when we sign people, we'll be more than happy to talk a lot about it."

On if they would keep unsigned UFAs instead of trading them for assets

"I don't know what's going to transpire at the deadline. It's a [ways] away. We'll see how we're playing, and then we'll do what's best for this hockey club and our fan base short term and long term."

On if the start accelerates or changes the long-term plan

"Not necessarily, because we've sort of already accelerated our drafting. We had three first-round picks last year.
"The whole point of what we wanted to do coming out of that expansion draft was have a competitive team to give this market a chance, to give our fans a chance, and to acquire surplus picks to really stockpile good young players for our organization. We've been able to do both.
"The team's competitive, and we have a lot of picks, and so we're hoping that all the picks that we've acquired, at the end of all these drafts, the next three or four years, that we'll have a fully stocked team and be in a pretty good place."

On if the start upsets anything for the long term

"It doesn't. We're a fairly young team. We'd like to think we're positioned pretty well, and we'll keep our fingers crossed and hope we can keep making good decisions."

On the difference in building this expansion team

"[Compiling assets the first season was] sort of the old way of doing it, because there was no other way to do it. If you don't have a very good team, how do you get better? You get better through the draft.
"The rules were better this time around [in the Expansion Draft] to give this team a chance. There's free agency available now to teams. Maybe you could improve yourself that way. One of the things that … helped us was the salary cap itself. Some teams had cap stress, and we were willing to absorb some contracts, and by doing that, we got better assets -- a better player or better draft picks.
"And so this is the new way of doing it. The old way of doing it, there's no guarantee that that would work, because the lottery's completely different now too. You know, you may think you're picking one or two, but you might be down at six.
"So for all those reasons, we're going to try to be the best we can be immediately and every year."

On why the Golden Knights have jelled so well

"We put a lot of time into that. We wanted a team that was going to work hard. We wanted a team of good guys. And we did a lot of vetting of personalities. But we were trying to get as much talent as we could get.
"We were trying to get guys that were going to work and be competitive, and we were trying to get people that you'd want to be around every day, because it matters. And we did a good job of that.
"But again, I keep repeating myself; we're only halfway through the season. We can't be patting ourselves on the back for anything. Not yet."

On the internal analysis of their success so far

"I wouldn't give that away, but it's about trying to be a team. Everybody here is treated the same. The coach treats everybody the same. The employees, the management treats the players the same. And it's the best way to do things.
"Everybody that plays the game wants to be in that kind of environment. We've got some structure. We've got a culture. And it's a team. We roll four lines. We roll the D. Everybody gets … If you've got a jersey on, you're playing.
"All of us managing this game would like to have this every year. It's hard to get. We tried to get the best assets out of expansion and at the same time have some form of proper team construction. That was almost the harder thing to do.
"And Gerard was able to pull all these individuals together, and we do have proper team construction, and it's working."

On the next step

"It's passing whatever the next test is. That's what's great about sports. It's an endless series of tests. You're never …
"The day you stop passing those tests is the day you get replaced or the day you retire, whether you're a player or a coach or a manager, equipment guy. If you're doing a good job and passing the tests, you'll have a job and the team will do well. If you're not passing the tests, all the challenges you're faced with, then it doesn't work.
"It's all the tests we're all aware of, and it's one after another, and you have to pass them. It's how this business works."

On the value of early success in establishing the Golden Knights in Las Vegas

"We're going to try to have the best season we can have, of course.
"No one knew how this was going to go in Vegas. It's a big step for a league to expand, and [NHL Commissioner] Gary Bettman and [Deputy Commissioner] Bill Daly had the guts to try to move forward on this. They got support from the League, from all the other owners, and so far it's been successful for the League.
"No league wants to expand and have to carry a franchise for six or eight or 10 years to see whether it's going to work or not. It looks like it's been done right. It just makes the League healthier and better."