George McPhee is finally a Stanley Cup champion.
McPhee’s Vegas Golden Knights blew out the Florida Panthers 9-3 in Game Five. The win gave Vegas their first Stanley Cup since joining the NHL. They have twice appeared in the Final since their inaugural season, last playing for the Cup against the Washington Capitals in 2018.
The championship victory is also McPhee’s first. He did not take home a Cup as a player, and had an 0-3 record in Cup Finals as an executive before Vegas overcame Florida. He had been in and around the league for over 37 years before finally tasting ultimate hockey success on Tuesday.
George McPhee pic.twitter.com/riK2fswEtU
— Roy Bellamy (@roybelly) June 14, 2023
McPhee was in the building when his former team, the Washington Capitals, took down his Golden Knights in the 2018 Final. He also was on the losing side in 1994 with the Vancouver Canucks and 1998 with the Caps.
While his good buddy and mentoree Brian MacLellan added the pieces that put the Caps over the top, McPhee built half of the Caps team that finally reached the promised land. Team captain and eventual playoff MVP Alex Ovechkin even lived with McPhee and his family during The Great Eight’s rookie season in the NHL.
One of the moments that had to be bittersweet for McPhee was to see the Capitals team he built win the Cup in 2018, but beat the Vegas team to do it. He did hang out on the bench to watch the celebration, and congratulate his former club. Clearly he hopes to get on ice tonight. pic.twitter.com/oRwsHGPRt8
— Ted Starkey (@TedStarkey) June 13, 2023
Now with Vegas, McPhee finally got to see one of his teams hoist the Cup. Poetically, the Golden Knights got the job done on home ice in the same building where McPhee watched that Caps celebration from the visitor bench in 2018.
T-Mobile Arena was sent into bedlam at the final horn.
The 2023 Stanley Cup Champions, the Vegas Golden Knights pic.twitter.com/jEQIqcRepl
— Shayna (@hayyyshayyy) June 14, 2023
McPhee was handed the Cup by team owner Bill Foley in the ensuing celebration.
After not having his contract renewed by the Caps in 2014, McPhee spent one season in the New York Islanders’ front office under Garth Snow before Foley hired him to be the first-ever general manager in Vegas franchise history.
His primary responsibility as the leader of the Golden Knights was to put together a competitive team via the expansion draft and expansion draft-related trades. He successfully did just that as Vegas made the Cup Final in their very first season with those players. One of those key moves was to bring in both Jonathan Marchessault and Reilly Smith from the Florida Panthers with just a fourth-round pick headed the other way. Six of McPhee’s original players–dubbed the “Misfits”–hoisted the Cup Tuesday night.
Marchessault finished second in the entire league in playoff scoring this postseason with 25 points (13g, 12a). He took home the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP. Smith chipped in 14 points (4g, 10a) as Vegas’ seventh-leading playoff scorer.
McPhee, now the team’s president of hockey operations after a 2019 promotion, was also responsible for hiring Vegas’ Cup-winning head coach, Bruce Cassidy. The decision marked McPhee’s second time hiring Cassidy in his career. He brought Cassidy to DC to coach the Caps for a short-lived stint before the 2002-03 campaign.
Bruce Cassidy said there was no trepidation to working for George McPhee again.
McPhee gave Cassidy his first head coaching job in Washington, but fired him 25 games into the 2nd season.
Cassidy- “I told George I’m going to get it right this time.”
— Jesse Granger (@JesseGranger_) June 16, 2022
McPhee, aided by now general manager Kelly McCrimmon, made further big alterations to the Vegas roster, adding key names like Jack Eichel, Mark Stone, Chandler Stephenson, Ivan Barbashev, Alex Pietrangelo, and Adin Hill along the way to this big win.
Huge congratulations from us at RMNB, George!
Headline photo: Chris Gordon/RMNB
