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

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.”