The Vegas Golden Knights are getting ready to assemble a roster.
Golden Knights general manager George McPhee talked with Michael Russo of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. He said he’d like to a build a team similar to the high-flying mid-2000’s Washington Capitals.
“I’ve built high-flying teams in the past, offensive, entertaining teams and would like to do the same thing,” said McPhee, the Washington Capitals GM for 17 years. “What we do with the expansion draft hasn’t been settled yet because until we see the entire universe of what teams want to do, who they want to protect and expose, we don’t know which way we’re going to go.”
As McPhee admits, it’s tough to tell how his team might shape up considering which players will be exposed in the upcoming expansion draft is still unknown. But, for those early-Golden Knight fans, it’s encouraging to hear him value offense and pace. Offensive skill is what currently rules today’s NHL. Gone are the days of tough, big bodied customers holding top value. Using his expansion choices to draft those type of players would be foolish. Taking risks on highly-skilled offensive players is a great play.
McPhee, at the very least, seems to understand how to build a team in today’s NHL. It will be fascinating to see how things pan out going forward.
