Golden Knights Players Will Receive Championship Rings At Private Dinner Sunday; Public Can Buy Rings Starting Monday For As Much As $75,000

 

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   Story by Alan Snel   Photos by J. Tyge O’Donnell

Vegas Golden Knights players will receive their Stanley Cup championship rings at a banquet dinner at a hotel on the Strip Sunday before the title banner is unveiled before Tuesday’s season-opener during a pre-game presentation show that will be longer and more elaborate than usual.

 

One day after the VGK players receive their rings, about 50 top tier rings will be available to the public at a cost of $75,000 each on Monday, said Eric Tosi, chief marketing officer for the Golden Knights and VGK owner Bill Foley’s sports group.

Fans will be able to buy several tiers of rings for a minimum price of about $1,000, Tosi told LVSportsBiz.com in an interview before Thursday’s Golden Knights-Colorado Avalanche preseason game.

The design of the championship rings and banner was a collaborative effort from people ranging from Foley, Hockey Operations President George McPhee and General Manager Kelly McCrimmon to Knights players and team marketing personnel.  The championship ring was created in collaboration with Jason of Beverly Hills.

ADD: The VGK released info on the rings Sunday night after the dinner

• Approximately 12 carats of white and yellow diamonds, with the yellow diamonds used to represent the Golden Knights’ name.
• A detachable top that can be worn as a pendant that, when removed, reveals the interior of the team’s T-Mobile Arena home. The center ice logo looks as it did for the 2023 Stanley Cup Final, and stars denote the location of each of the team’s nine goals in the Cup-clinching Game 5.
• Team mottos “Vegas Born” and “Always Advance” are on each side of the ring, connected by the distinctive Las Vegas skyline.
• An engraving reading “It’s Knight Time” on the back of the pendant and another inside the band of the ring that reads “Cup in Six,” referencing Foley’s prediction before his six-year-old expansion team began play.
• 16 stars on the front of the ring representing the team’s 16 playoff victories, while the 67 white diamonds set on to the primary logo’s helmet honor the total wins in the regular season and playoffs. The 32 diamonds on the inner bezel represent the NHL’s 32 teams.
• Six stones surround a diamond Stanley Cup, representing the franchise’s six seasons and set in a star shape that matches the team’s “Vegas Strong” banner that honors the victims of 1 October. The .54 carats of diamonds on the Stanley Cup pay tribute to the team’s 54 all-time playoff wins.

Fans can buy rings at various price points. As an aside, “We have a long history in Vegas, opening our first retail store in the Cosmopolitan in 2010,” said Jason Arasheben, CEO of Jason of Beverly Hills.

 

Tosi said most teams will unveil a championship banner on opening night, but the Golden Knights will be adding a lot more pre-game hoopla to the ceremony.

“We’re not most teams,” Tosi cracked with a laugh.

He noted fans will want to be in their seats well before the pre-game championship celebration starts.

Fans have received small replica title banners with different sponsors on the giveaway before each of the four VGK preseason games.

But Tosi said fans attending Tuesday’s banner-unveiling season-opener will be receiving a bigger Stanley Cup title banner than the four preseason freebies when they’re leaving T-Mobile Arena Tuesday night.

Besides selling the championship rings from $75,000 to about $1,000, the Golden Knights will be selling a variety of title-themed jewelry with Stanley Cup touches like pendants, cufflinks, lapel pins and bracelets, Tosi said.

The team is even peddling authenticated Stanley Cup Final Game 5 ice that was scooped up and being sold in vials at the VGK team store at the team’s training center and headquarters in Downtown Summerlin.

The VGK even enlisted stars Mark Stone and Jonathan Marchessault for a video showing them in the team store.

At T-Mobile Arena, the Knights’ center logo has an outline of the Stanley Cup as if it’s being looked at from an overhead perch.

“We’re Stanley Cup champions all season long. The Stanley Cup won’t be in your face during the season, but there will be a subtle manner through the season,” Tosi said.

 

What will not be subtle will be VGK’s Opening Night Tuesday. The championship banner design was finalized in July and completed in September and will hang next to the team’s Vegas Strong banner.

“I can’t go into too much detail about the banner. You can’t go too out there with the design, but it won’t be traditional either — as we typically do,” Tosi pointed out.

While the Golden Knights can use the Stanley Cup images and assets to sell merch, it’s a little more tricky for Foley’s other properties — from wineries to restaurants — to use the Stanley Cup for sales. Foley would have get permission from the NHL to use the Stanley Cup’s likeness when promoting his wineries, restaurants or lodging.

From a branding standpoint, the Golden Knights will continue their “Golden Age”  theme that was unveiled for last season when the team moved to using the gold jersey as its primary sweater, Tosi said.

“Having won the Stanley Cup, we’re in the Golden Age,” Tosi quipped.

In fact, expect more gold in the building in 2023-24 as the team will push everything from golden sunglasses to golden pom poms, he said.

Tosi was in his fourth year working for the Boston Bruins in 2011 when the Bruins won their Stanley Cup championship. Tosi noted he deployed many similar Stanley Cup celebration techniques for the VGK from his Bruins days from the players’ Stanley Cup tours during the summer to even developing ideas for the championship ring.

While players will not be wearing pre-game theme night jerseys, the Golden Knights will be staging their theme nights. In fact, tonight’s theme is Pride Night and the special cause nights will continue.

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The Knights are playing their final home preseason game against a talented Colorado squad.

The Avs lead, 3-2, midway through the third period with VGK goals by Nic Roy and Pavel Dorofeyev. Then Jonathan Marchessault tipped in a shot and the Knights tied the game at three after Colorado led, 3-0.

The Knights took a win with only 1:17 left in the third period when Paul “Welcome Back” Cotter scored on a rebound and the VGK skated away with a 4-3 win. The Knights are 2-3-1 during the preseason.

 

The Knights announced attendance at 17,539.

Marchessault, in his postgame chat, said the Vegas team is great five-on-five and that good teams find ways to win:

Cotter also shared his thoughts after the game:

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