Confirmed with Link: George McPhee Hired as General Manager.

[absolute garbage]

LV fans should be happy. McPhee isn't gonna help you guys win a Cup immediately or anything, but looking at his track record in DC, he should help build a strong, perennial playoff team. Especially if he learned from the mistakes made in DC, i.e, trading Forsberg for Erat and Latta, trading Eakin for Ribeiro, getting great production out of Ribeiro, and then not re-signing him, etc. When you add the good he did in DC, he was able to net us:

-Alex Ovechkin
-Braden Holtby
-Nick Backstrom
-John Carlson
-Karl Alzner
-Evgeny Kuznetsov
-Andre Burakovsky

Those are basically the core players of this franchise. So while he did make some colossal mistakes that overshadow what he did here (Ross Mahoney does deserve a lot of credit as well), LV fans should be happy about this as long as they don't keep him around too long.

You mean he made the team so terrible that his scouting staff was able to draft some excellent players with high picks who then carried the team as far as they could (not very far at all because the rest of the team he managed to put together was crap)?

Yeah, that's not really an achievement. Vegas is off to a bad start here. McPhee is an outdated, incompetent doofus, and this is an awful 'old boys club' hire.

 

[Brew]

You mean he made the team so terrible that his scouting staff was able to draft some excellent players with high picks who then carried the team as far as they could (not very far at all because the rest of the team he managed to put together was crap)?

Yeah, that's not really an achievement. Vegas is off to a bad start here. McPhee is an outdated, incompetent doofus, and this is an awful 'old boys club' hire.

I say let's see how he drafts and what direction he moves in. He had some solid seasons with the Capitals, but his coaches are just as much to blame as he is. It's a partnership, not the sole reliability of a GM to put a team together.

The big mistake he made was Forsberg for Erat. Hopefully he's learned from that.

 

[willy702]

Agreed on the phase approach for a GM. Very few GMs or coaches are really good at all stages of a teams life cycle. Some are better when a team is bad because they have patience and a long view. That person though has to change when the window to success is open. Those who handle strong squads and get them over the finish line are going to struggle with bad teams no matter how much they claim they are ready to rebuild.

We will see how fan and owner pressure develops in the market. Most are not truly into accepting hockey is a parity game and all one can do is hope to have a shot every year. Cynical fans get on a team and it's management for not winning Cups, but everything has to go right to win that Cup. Sometimes in a short series the opponent gets the breaks and off you go. Is it truly a failure to have the season the Caps just did and yet lose to the eventual Champs? I would take my chances with that Caps team every year. One of the years they would win the Cup. Having a good shot at winning four series is all you can ask for. I think McPhee put the team in the position relatively well, if he learned from the bad moves and gets support to build a team that has a shot most years then he will be a fine GM.

 

[BattleBorn]

Press Conference Streams

If you're all interested in watching, you've got a few to choose from.

Facebook Live is the choice for the hockey folks, you can find the streams on their pages.

Sinbin: https://www.facebook.com/sinbinvegas/
Steve Carp, LVRJ: https://www.facebook.com/reviewjournal/
T-Mobile Arena: http://www.facebook.com/tmobilearena

Local Media Pages, they will likely put up live streams closer to the time.

NBC: http://www.news3lv.com
Fox: http://www.fox5vegas.com
CBS: http://www.lasvegasnow.com
ABC: http://www.ktnv.com

 

[702]

I can't tell who are Vegas people or who are bitter fans from Caps

 

[HanSolo]

Until we build up a more regular base of posters here it'll be hard to distinguish them.

I wonder how likely it'll be that Vegas fans who don't post on HF already will happen to find it and join. Now that hockey's future is canned.

 

[The Feckless Puck]

 

[HanSolo]

This makes me sad

 

[The Feckless Puck]

If we're going retread, I'm glad we didn't go Arizona retread.

Let him land somewhere else for a while to get the Coyote stink off of him and he'll wind up a GM again.

/fakerivalry

Of course, he had to wait to get the NYI stink off of him before he signed with Arizona, so it seems to me that he's had several rather questionable intervals between GM gigs in his career...

 

[KnishOfTheCrease]

I can't tell who are Vegas people or who are bitter fans from Caps

<---Fan of Las Vegas. I dislike the Warshington Capitals. I hope Tom Wilson dies of Dysentery when playing The Oregon Trail.

 

[BattleBorn]

If you're all interested in watching, you've got a few to choose from.

Facebook Live is the choice for the hockey folks, you can find the streams on their pages.

Sinbin: https://www.facebook.com/sinbinvegas/
Steve Carp, LVRJ: https://www.facebook.com/reviewjournal/
T-Mobile Arena: http://www.facebook.com/tmobilearena

Local Media Pages, they will likely put up live streams closer to the time.

NBC: http://www.news3lv.com
Fox: http://www.fox5vegas.com
CBS: http://www.lasvegasnow.com
ABC: http://www.ktnv.com

Getting ready to go. Here's a self quote with stream info.

Channel 3 stream direct link: http://news3lv.com/live/event
Fox 5: http://www.fox5vegas.com/category/273649/livestream2

 

[sabresfan65]

Time to get your popcorn!!

 

[HanSolo]

Are you guys live yet?

 

[BattleBorn]

Are you guys live yet?

News 3 is. Marley has been the soundtrack in the room for the last hour. Pretty nice.

 

[HanSolo]

News 3 ain't working for me. I'm stuck at Sam's on their WiFi

 

[KnishOfTheCrease]

We're going for the Cup, boys!

 

[BattleBorn]

News 3 ain't working for me. I'm stuck at Sam's on their WiFi

Check my post above, there's a ton of other places.

You're not missing much, standard press conference.

Mentioned Nevada and Las Vegas. Aiming for the Stanley Cup, etc.

 

[strungout]

You guys are getting good GM.

As a Capitals fan...I was fine with his overall tenure. Fired Bruce Boudreau too soon and made some bonehead coaching hires (Cassidy, Oates), and of course the Forsberg trade... but his player personnel decisions were decent over the years.

Vegas will be my west coast team for sure.

 

[BattleBorn]

Tons of tweets, click +/- to see them:

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[irunthepeg]

For all his shortcomings and faults as the Washington GM, I do think George McPhee will be a great first GM to bring the franchise up.

 

[KnishOfTheCrease]

I'm sold. Plan the parade route

 

[HanSolo]

Well I like what's being said. But I liked what Carlyle had to say in his return to Anaheim press conference for both men I'll just have to see if the words ever ring true.

 

[HanSolo]

My favorite part was McPhee saying that getting the elite players comes from picking the right guys in the draft and that's even more important than free agents and the expansion draft. Gives me confidence that he's gonna be on the hunt for some damn good scouts. And I can't argue with his drafting in Washington. Even if Forsberg at 11 was a no brainer

If he didn't want to work for Anaheim anymore I'd love Vegas to pick up Martin Madden. He's been excellent for Anaheim and was a big part in the ducks reaching in Hampus Lindholm who is unquestionably one of the best players from the 2012 draft.

 

[Puckrobber]

New L.V. fan here. Kings are my #1 team, but, also enjoy the Coyotes & Sabres. Looking forward to next season when Vegas is all in.

That being said, I think McPhee is good GM to start with. He knows he way around the League very well, and has a lot of respect from other GM's. I think fans will enjoy what he does for the team in the beginning.

 

[Brew]

Knowing Don Maloney was the other option hurts. Take him on as an advisor/assistant GM please McPhee. For the love of your new fan base, don't let him go.