Kelly McCrimmon sat in a Dallas restaurant Wednesday night and watched his team collect four awards. He soaked in the moment, reflected a bit and then told his scouting staff: let's get back to work.
While Golden Knights GM George McPhee was in Vegas for the NHL Awards Show, assistant GM McCrimmon was in Texas preparing for the NHL Entry Draft.
The Golden Knights collected four awards, including McPhee's GM of the Year nod, at the league's season end celebration.
For McCrimmon, who works hand in hand with McPhee running the club's hockey operations department, it was a happy moment and a nod to the fine work done by the people Vegas has assembled.
Golden Knights Management Prepped for Upcoming Weeks
"I said it last night: the way people in our business are wired, you often skip over recognizing accomplishments or appreciating a good season," said McCrimmon, following Thursday's full slate of meetings with both amateur and pro scouting staffs. "Last night, for me, was a couple of things. First, what really resonated with me, was the one-year anniversary of selecting our team. All of these things that have happened that have been so special, so historic in nature, it all began, in terms of player selection, exactly a year ago. When you watch the NHL Awards and you see people from our organization being recognized for the great years that they had, it brings it to your attention in a real significant way how well this team did in its first year of existence. We watched it as a staff, so it was great to have all of our pro scouts, hockey operations people, amateur scouts, team services, with Bronco (Rick Braunstein) and Katy (Boettinger), all in the same room to be able to enjoy it together. We're very happy for those people."
He didn't win an award, but obviously it was a really special night for Bill Foley as well. The picture at the end of the night with Bill holding the Western Conference Championship Trophy and each of the four award winners on either side of him is really a tremendous recognition for those people. Last night, it was nice to just pause for a moment to appreciate the people that we get to work with and the players that we have in our organization. It underscored how well everything had gone in Year 1. I spoke to the staff last night and said: "we're back to work tomorrow morning."
That's just how it is: it's not something that we're going to talk about again or continue to reminisce. It's time to get to work - there's a lot going on. We played late, but business in the league continues. We're fully prepared for the amateur draft, we're in discussions with teams to have a pulse on what may or may not be going on around the NHL, free agency is coming up next week and then development camp. So it's a really important time frame for our organization."
Last year's draft saw the Golden Knights take three players in the first round. This year, following a deadline deal for winger Tomas Tatar, the Golden Knights currently don't have a pick on Friday night.
"I think for the staff they are conducting their business as they would ordinarily both in terms of viewings and reporting, the compiling our final list. We've done our year-end list as if we were going to pick at any point in the draft," explained McCrimmon.
"That's how we prepared for it. Our staff has done a tremendous job of breaking down the draft into different layers that we expect to be there when our picks are made. We will be ready on the floor for anything that happens."
Going to the Stanley Cup in the team's first year of existence was both unexpected and thrilling. Some have argued it has raised expectations and clearly that's true. But that's a healthy pressure within the organization. It underscores what every NHL franchise lives with on a daily basis - get better or lose. That's a basic reality in pro sport."
"We had a lot of people on our team that had career years statistically. Past that, I look at the growth I saw in players that I wouldn't even necessarily equate back to their goals and assists. I look at how much of a better player Colin Miller is than today he was on September 1. Nate Schmidt, Shea Theodore, Brayden McNabb - I could go through our entire defense. You mentioned Deryk Engelland," said McCrimmon. "Up front, Alex Tuch was at development camp a year ago. He was a good, young prospect and now has got a real solid first year in the NHL under his belt. We expect he's going to really develop for a number of years as he gets into his prime. Year 2, as a team, there's going to be a lot more things that are in place. I think there's a good core, I think there's reasonable expectations that players should continue to get better, but you always have to be mindful that you have to keep getting better because other teams are. We're going to have to play really well to make the playoffs next year. We were in the Stanley Cup Final this year. There's going to be 15 teams [in the Western Conference] worried about being in the top-eight at the end of the year."
While the push to stay near the top of the NHL is the expectation both within the organization and the fanbase - so too is the reality that this is a new organization with lots of holes in the depth chart. Draft and develop must remain a focus and McCrimmon says it will.
"Yeah, no change in approach there for us. Generally, if you can draft and develop your own star players that's the best way," he said. "I think when you look at the teams that we played against in the playoffs there are some tremendous examples, whether that is with the Drew Doughtys and Anze Kopitars of the world or it's Winnipeg with the Patrick Laines, the Kyle Conners, the Josh Morrisseys, all of those types of players. And then, of course, in the final series with Washington, who I believed had 11 or 12 first round picks in their line-ups on any given night. To me, that's always the first foundation of how you will build an organization. That's where your star players are going to come from, that's where your organizational depth is going to come from, and then you are always trying to use whatever means possible to continue to improve, whether that's opportunities that present themselves from a trade or that come free agency. Those are all additional ways of building your team, building your organization, but at the core you have to be an organization that respects and appreciates the value of draft picks and that does a good job at hiring the right people to make those selections and then to add to that the critical piece of player development."
Vegas will follow the draft up with Development Camp at City National Arena next week. It's a chance to see the players selected this weekend as well as an opportunity to gauge the growth of last year's picks.
"We're real excited to see all of our players that we drafted last year. So, we have the draft picks. Zach Whitecloud is a college free-agent signing, Dylan Coghlan was a free-agent signing that came to development camp a year ago and then to fall camp and then we had the opportunity to sign him and did that," McCrimmon said.
"Really important to see what their progress is and has been and really important to see them on the ice with each other. It provides a great bar for measuring the draft class that we are going to select this weekend and then as well with development camp there is a number of free agents that might be college free agents that you follow up with nine or ten months later, might be free agents that are playing major juniors that are going to return to play major juniors that you will have an opportunity to gain some insight on. What your evaluations of what those players look like and it's a really important week for our organization."
"Last year's draft is a draft of 1999-born players and players born after September 15th 1998, so in Nicolas Hague's case that puts him one year closer to turning pro and with Zach Whitecloud coming out of college he will also be playing professionally next year. Erik Brannstrom, Nick Suzuki, and Cody Glass are all born in 1999, so they have a little bit longer development curve ahead of them based on that."
