The Vegas Golden Knights are on their first road trip. Before their inaugural season opens Oct. 6, staffers are taking a bus tour of Idaho, Montana and Utah, where their games will be televised on AT&T SportsNet. They are holding public events this week, including visits from owner Bill Foley, coach Gerard Gallant and players. The tour began Tuesday in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, and will finish Saturday in Salt Lake City. NHL.com columnist Nick Cotsonika is on the bus and will be filing reports from the road.

WHITEFISH, Mont. -- One day in August 2013, Bill Foley motored his pontoon boat around Whitefish Lake and found Murray Craven relaxing by his house.

It's common for folks on the lake to go dock to dock and chat with neighbors over a beverage, and Craven had become more than a neighbor over the years. He was a golfing buddy, a friend, a confidant.

EDINA, Minn. -- Count Minnesota Wild forward Zach Parise among those thrilled to have center Matt Cullen as a teammate.

Cullen, 40, is entering his 20th season in the NHL after signing a one-year, $1 million contract with the Wild on Wednesday.

TORONTO -- Dylan Larkin, Detroit Red Wings third-line center.

"Right behind Henrik Zetterberg and Frans Nielsen," Larkin, 21, said.

For how long depends on Larkin's production.

WHITEFISH, Mont. -- The boy walked up to the player in the lobby of the Stumptown Ice Den.

"Jake Bischoff, right?" the boy said.

"Yeah," the player said. "Nice to meet you."

We might be in northwestern Montana, in a logging-turned-resort town more than 1,000 miles from Las Vegas, but Bradford Thompson knows his hockey and his Vegas Golden Knights, the NHL expansion team about to open its inaugural season. So does his buddy Birney Grantz.

Matt Cullen was barely five minutes into the media conference call Wednesday to discuss his decision to come back for another NHL season, and return to his home state to play for the Minnesota Wild, when the inevitable question came.

Will this be the center's final season?

STOCKHOLM -- If defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson is asked to be the next captain of the Arizona Coyotes, he's up to the task.

"That would be a huge honor," Ekman-Larsson said during the European Player Media Tour last week. "I didn't dream of that when I was a kid. It was a long, long way from that. It would be unbelievable."

COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho -- No, goaltender Calvin Pickard did not board the bus in Las Vegas on Monday and spend 20 hours riding 1,100 miles for an event here on Tuesday as part of the Vegas Golden Knights Road Trip. He flew in.

But he flew in from home in Winnipeg, which is about the same distance away that Las Vegas is. He took an hour flight to Minneapolis. Then he took a three-hour flight to Spokane, Washington. Then he took a 30-minute Uber ride to this resort town on the Idaho panhandle.

COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho -- This is how it starts.

The Vegas Golden Knights won't begin their inaugural NHL season until Oct. 6, when they visit the Dallas Stars, and won't play their first home game until Oct. 10, when they host the Arizona Coyotes.

VOORHEES, N.J. -- A chance to spend a full season in the NHL had defenseman Anthony DeAngelo excited to learn he'd been traded to the New York Rangers.

"I think it'll be good," DeAngelo said Friday. "I think there's changes going on there. They're still a good hockey team. I just have to go in there and try to make the team out of [training] camp and keep moving forward."

The 21-year-old was traded to the Rangers with the seventh pick in the 2017 NHL Draft from the Arizona Coyotes for center Derek Stepan and goaltender Antti Raanta on June 23.