The 31st NHL franchise now has a name, logo, and color scheme. All that’s left for the Vegas Golden Knights are uniforms and players to wear them.
Tonight in front of a crowd of thousands outside of T-Mobile Arena – their future home, majority owner Bill Foley and Gary Bettman were on hand to show the world the first major professional franchise to call Las Vegas home.
Foley promised in the weeks leading up to today’s unveiling that the name would either be the Silver Knights, the Desert Knights or the Golden Nights. And he stuck with one of the those options.
“Our logo and our name is really going to exhibit the highest element of the warrior class – the knight,” Foley said right before making the announcement. “The knight protects the unprotected. The knight defends the realm. The knight never gives up, never gives in, always advances, never retreats, and that’s what our team is going to be.”
The Golden Knights will enter the league in the Pacific Division as the eighth team in the division and 15th in the Western Conference. The Eastern Conference has 16 teams.
George McPhee was hired as general manager on July 13, Kelly McCrimmon as assistant GM on Aug. 2 and Murray Craven as senior vice president on Aug. 18. They currently do not have a head coach.
The team will be selected through an expansion draft. The other 30 NHL teams must submit their list of protected players by 5 p.m. ET on June 17, 2017. The Golden Knights must pick one player from each of the 30 teams and submit their selections by 5 p.m. ET on June 20 and the announcement of their selections will be released on June 21.
