By ALAN SNEL
LVSportsBiz.com
On Sunday night, a young pro hockey player named Nick Suzuki — a mere teen-ager at 19 — was playing for the Vegas Golden Knights rookie squad.
In the third period, he was on the Golden Knights power play, hoping to score against the San Jose Sharks rookie team in the second day of the three-day, six-team rookie tournament at City National Arena, the VGK’s training center in Summerlin.
After the game, Suzuki — the Golden Knights’ first round pick (13th overall) in the June 2017 NHL Entry Draft — had a visitor.
Golden Knights General Manager George McPhee needed to talk with the prized prospect.
McPhee informed Suzuki, who just turned 19 exactly one month ago, that he was part of a multi-player trade that would bring star goal-scoring forward Max Pacioretty from the Montreal Canadiens to the Knights. The Golden Knights had traded Suzuki, along with forward Tomas Tatar and a second 2019 second round draft pick originally belonging to the Columbus Blue Jackets, for one of the league’s dominant scorers and two-way players, Pacioretty.
McPhee told Suzuki Sunday night to not take the trade personally. That it’s part of doing business of the National Hockey League.
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“It’s a shock,” McPhee said, explaining at a Monday media conference that he understood Suzuki’s feelings.
McPhee told the media Monday at the VGK training center that Suzuki was a year or two from playing on the Golden Knights’ big team.
Little did Suzuki know that McPhee was talking to the Canadiens for the past two or three months on the Pacioretty deal and that things came together quickly the last three or four days.
When McPhee drafted Suzuki, he was only 17. There’s a photo showing a baby-faced Suzuki putting on a Golden Knights jersey with McPhee looking on and the 2017 NHL draft logo on a wall in the background.
Older players in the NHL understand there are trades and it’s part of doing business.
Suzuki learned that lesson early Sunday night.
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The Golden Knights had other news to share.
Golden Knights PR chief Eric Tosi said sales are strong for the inaugural Vegas Rookie Faceoff event, which has packed the bleachers at City National Arena with fans and team officials and scouts.
“All of our VIP and GA seats as well as standing room availability have been sold for all 6 games on Saturday and Sunday,” Tosi told LVSportsBiz.com. “Fans bought day passes that included all three games each day. The VGK games have been and will be the highest attended. Standing room only.”
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The Golden Knights have a new multi-year partnership with the Las Vegas-based Allegiant airlines, designating Allegiant as the “Official Domestic Airline Partner of the Vegas Golden Knights.”
In addition to the exclusive designation as the “Official Domestic Airline Partner of the Vegas Golden Knights,” look for Allegiant and its logo to be around T-Mobile Arena, on the plaza outside the arena and via digital and social media.
LVSportsBiz.com was not surprised. The Allegiant logo on the T-Mobile Arena ice was a big hint that the airlines had a deal with the VGK.
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VGK defenseman Deryk Engelland and his family have unveiled Engelland’s Vegas Born Heroes Foundation to honor community heroes in Las Vegas. The mission of the foundation is to publicly recognize and reward charities and community members who consistently and selflessly help others to benefit the city of Las Vegas.
Through this mission, the Engellands will hand select 20 community heroes to attend a Vegas Golden Knights game and receive a Golden Knights jersey and Vegas Born Hero shirt. “My family and I wanted to create this foundation to recognize the incredible men and women who work to better our community every day,” Engelland said. “I’m honored to do a small part in thanking them for their contributions.”
This season, heroes who went above and beyond to improve the community can be nominated through September 25 by emailing Engosheroesnomination@gmail.com. Fans can learn more about the foundation and this year’s heroes by following @EngosHeroes on Twitter.
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