Golden Knights GM says Vegas doesn’t ‘need to apologize’ for decisions made en route to Cup Final

LAS VEGAS -- Ruthless.

Villains.

The Bad Boys of the NHL.

All names Kelly McCrimmon has heard outside of Las Vegas to describe himself and his team, the Vegas Golden Knights. 

“I think we largely ignore it, to be honest,” the Golden Knights general manager told NHL.com Wednesday, less than 24 hours after the team qualified for the Stanley Cup Final for the third time in nine seasons. “It is what it is, and we’re not going to be able to change people’s minds. I don’t think we’re going to spend a lot of time trying to or caring about it.

“We are committed to winning and treating our people well. I don’t think we need to apologize or worry about what people on the outside think about.”

Right now, what the Golden Knights are solely thinking about is winning the Stanley Cup after reaching the Final by sweeping the mighty Colorado Avalanche in the Western Conference Final. 

The Golden Knights punched their ticket with a 2-1 victory against the Avalanche at home on Tuesday. It marked the third time the Golden Knights have reached the Final, a remarkable feat considering the franchise has been in existence for less than a decade and went to the Cup Final in its first season, a team built through the 2017 NHL Expansion Draft.

But with winning has come no shortage of criticism, whether it’s about messy divorces with popular players like Marc-Andre Fleury in 2021, firing Stanley Cup-winning coach Bruce Cassidy and replacing him with John Tortorella with just eight games to go this regular season on March 27, not giving interested teams permission to speak to Cassidy until after the Stanley Cup Playoffs, or the lack of postgame media availability with Tortorella and most players after eliminating the Anaheim Ducks in the Western Conference Second Round, which McCrimmon admitted “we were wrong about.”

Cue the talk about being the villains of the NHL. 

“Well, that's certainly the narrative, and it's almost like people aren't anxious to give us any credit for doing a really good job,” McCrimmon said.

“Initially it was because the expansion rules were allegedly so favorable and that’s why some said we had early success with the franchise. Then it was because we cheat. We use (long-term injured reserve) to build our team. Then it's, you know, who knows what the next reasons are, right? 

“But I think that for us, we just really stay committed to trying to do the job with our team. You’ve got to make a lot of good decisions. Not just making a hard decision, a bold decision. You’ve got to make good decisions. And we think that we do that. 

“And in terms of the ‘ruthlessness,’ we treat our players fantastic. And the organization is as good as there is in the National Hockey League. Players appreciate management trying to build a championship team. That's what players want. They want to win.

“I don't think there's anyone in our locker room that would refer to us that way. It's all from outside the organization.”

What isn't debatable is how impressive the Golden Knights are playing right now in an attempt to win their second Stanley Cup championship in four seasons, the franchise’s first one coming in 2023. As Avalanche coach Jared Bednar so accurately put it during his series-ending press conference: “We ran into a buzzsaw.”

In an exclusive interview with NHL.com one day after Vegas eliminated Colorado, McCrimmon elaborated on a wide range of topics including Tortorella’s hiring, the success of the franchise in the past decade, and what lies ahead.

First off, how impressed were you at how your team defeated the Avalanche in four straight, the same team that won the Presidents’ Trophy for having the most points (121) during the regular season?

“I didn't think there was a team that could sweep the Colorado Avalanche with the season they had, and how much regard we have for their team and their organization. So that was unexpected. And when you look at the series being a sweep, you sort of draw the conclusion that the series wasn't close. That was anything but the case. The teams are very close. I felt at the end of the first period of Game 1 that the teams were pretty even. You know, that was kind of my takeaway …”

Two months ago, prior to the coaching change, did you foresee this team making the run that it has?

“I've always felt that our organization has a good idea of what a championship team needs to look like, so in terms of the roster construction and the moves that we made for this year's team, I think we were really comfortable with that. There's always some things that have to go your way.  But we just were really struggling to win coming out of the Olympics. We really hit a flat spot, and just really felt that this might be a missed opportunity. And I made the point at the time: If we didn't have very high expectations for our team, we probably would not have made a coaching change. We would have rolled it out and put the chips forward where they may. But, in reality, we did feel that the team had this type of potential. So that was a big part of why the move was made.”

There was a lot of talk about the timing of Cassidy’s dismissal, what with it being so close to the postseason. Why make the move that late in the season?

“I think I said at the time, we were in first place for 65 days or something like that this year, and we had fallen to second, then we'd fallen into third, and suddenly there's a real possibility that we would miss the playoffs if we didn't start winning. When you look at it in hindsight, with (the Los Angeles Kings) finishing as strongly as they did, and Nashville having a pretty good finish as well, who knows, we might not have made the playoffs. That was just the reality of the situation that we were looking at at the time, and that was why we just felt that we immediately had make the change when we did. That doesn’t take away from our respect for Bruce. He won a Cup here. We know what he did for the franchise. It was just time.”

Why John Tortorella?

“To be honest, I was looking at it through the lens of who was a Rick Bowness-type guy out there because of the immediate impact Rick had when he took over Columbus earlier in the season. And for what we were looking for, I thought that his enthusiasm and passion would be well received. I think he’s a guy that's very comfortable in his own skin, and was going to come in and get settled in and adjusted right away, which he certainly did. We thought that he could provide a boost. That's really what it came down to. And he was eager to take the opportunity. And he's certainly done a great job.”

Looking at the big picture, three Stanley Cup Final appearances in the first nine seasons of a franchise. … How do you view that accomplishment as a whole?

“Well, there’s still work to do right now. But it's a great accomplishment. And it's interesting, the different things that you remember. When we went to the Final the first time in 2018 after beating a very good Winnipeg Jets team, for (then-GM) George McPhee, who was as good an NHL executive as there's ever been, it was his first time back to the Final in something like 20 years. It just sort of resonated with me in that moment how hard it is to do. And we've done it three times. And it's interesting. We did it in Year 1, Year 6, and Year 9, so it's not like we had sort of one flush of players where we went three times in a row, or three times in four years. We had three different teams in 2018, 2023 and now this one. Three different rosters. So I think that sort of speaks to the great job that our scouting staff does. It speaks to the mindset and the decision-making processes that we use when we build our teams. And in the moment, this current one seems like such a great accomplishment based on the team that we just beat in Colorado.”

One of the things your franchise has become known for is making bold moves when you really wanted a big-name player over the years, whether it be Alex Pietrangelo, Mark Stone, Jack Eichel, Noah Hanifin, Tomas Hertl, Mitch Marner … the list goes on. What goes into that philosophy?

“For us, I think it’s how you identify the player and what your needs are. People think we're interested in every player that comes to market, and we're not. Not the case. We are aggressive, sure. But our interest is based on the picture we have in our minds of what a championship team needs to look like. We’d seen the impact a No. 1 defenseman like Victor Hedman had in Tampa Bay so we went out and got Pietrangelo. When we needed a No. 1 center, we identified Eichel. We worked on that trade with the Buffalo Sabres for months. And you know what's interesting? There’s a perception that so many players want to come to Las Vegas, both to play and live. Well, Jack Eichel had no trade protection, and he had five years left on his contract, so every team in NHL could have traded for Jack Eichel. We paid a heavy price. I hated giving up some of the guys we did. But again, the difference between having a good team and a playoff team and a competing team and a championship team, there's a lot of things. Finding players who are difference makers and who slot into your lineup are key.”

Finally, looking ahead, you have a large group of players who won the Cup in 2023 who are still on your roster: Eichel, Stone, William Karlsson, Brayden McNabb, Shea Theodore, Brett Howden, Adin Hill, Ivan Barbashev, Keegan Kolesar, Ben Hutton, Reilly Smith. How important do you think that experience and Cup pedigree will be in your team’s quest to win the four more games that will result in a championship?

“I think that that's been noticeable in all three playoff series that we've been in this year, and I expect that it'll have an impact on the Final. There's a lot of different situations that you encounter over the course of four playoff rounds, and we've got a lot of guys that have done that before. And the other aspect of this, I've always felt: If you've got a real veteran team that's got a lot of winning pedigree, there's some real enthusiasm and energy that comes from players that are now in the Final for the first time. So Tuesday night for me, I really enjoyed watching what I call the first-timers. So that was Rasmus Andersson, that was Noah Hanifin, that was Nic Dowd, that was Cole Smith, that was Mitch Marner, that was Colton Sissons, that was Carter Hart. Those guys have never been to a Stanley Cup Final. I mean, all the players are thrilled to be moving on, but it's just kind of neat watching those guys that are going to the Cup Final for the first time.”