Vegas smashes Glass ceiling
Knights’ first pick makes hockey history
Cody Glass was a kid when his family took a trip to Las Vegas. They weren’t there to see the Cirque du Soleil or a magician or a performer like Britney Spears. They went there for a hockey tournament. In July.
“I was around 10, I think,” said Glass. “It was a summer tournament, but it’s pretty much always summer. Just being there and walking down the strip, you don’t get that in Winnipeg. I didn’t really see that as a hockey place when I went there.”
Glass is obviously hoping to change that. The 6- foot-2 centre from the Portland Winterhawks, who was selected sixth overall at the NHL Entry Draft on Friday, became the first pick of the Vegas Golden Knights. The team also selected Owen Sound centre Nick Suzuki and Swedish defenceman Erik Brannstrom with the 13th and 15th picks, respectively.
Suzuki said he’s never been to Vegas. Neither had Brannstrom, whose limited knowledge of the city came from watching the comedy, The Hangover.
“I ’ ve seen some good things,” said Brannstrom, smiling. “It feels amazing to go to Vegas. It should be really fun.”
Two days ago at the expansion draft, Vegas selected the players that will be on the ice for its inaugural season. But it’s this weekend when the team will really be built.
The Golden Knights, who have t wo s econd- r ound picks on Saturday, hope to stock their cupboards with prospects who can help the franchise achieve owner Bill Foley’s goal of playing for the Stanley Cup in six years.
It all begins with their three first- round picks, who all lean heavily on the skill side. Scouts are calling Glass the second- coming of Winnipeg’s Mark Scheifele. Suzuki is a sniper who ranked fourth in the OHL with 45 goals, and while Brannstom is undersized for a defenceman, he more than makes up for it with an ability to produce offensively.
All three have a chance to become the future faces of the franchise. But only Glass, who joins David Legwand (Nashville) and Rotislav Klesla (Columbus) and a limited group of others as the first picks of an expansion team, will have the distinction of being a trivia question.
“I think there’s a lot of pressure to it,” Glass, who called the Golden Knights jersey one of the top 3 in the league, said of being the team’s first pick. “But I also know what I can do on the ice. They believe in me, so I’m just going to prove them right. I know they’re going to be a great team in the future. I’m really looking forward to getting started.”
First- round picks always come with larger- than- life expectations. Even more so for what NHL commissioner Gary Bettman called “a historic first” for the franchise.
Throw in the fact that Las Vegas is anything but your usual hockey market and it wasn’t just about finding a player that could shoot and score. The Golden Knights had to find someone with character, someone who could handle the outside distractions of playing in Sin City, someone who could grow with the team, relate to the fans and be the face of the franchise.
It was a lot to ask, especially when you considered that this was an underwhelming draft that many scouts and general managers believed had no defined order or generation- type talents.
“We’ve thought about that a little bit, what it will mean to that player and does it add to the challenges and everything else. I guess it will depend on the player,” said Golden Knights GM George McPhee, who got to scout more than a typical general manager would this season. “I didn’t have a team to look after this year, so I could find time to go out and watch players and be involved in it. I feel pretty good about my knowledge of the draft.”
It helped that by the time Vegas picked, several names expected to go in the top 5 were still on the board. It was also a bonus that the Golden Knights had three picks in the top 15.
It allowed McPhee to maybe take chances. Not that Glass, whom NHL Cen- tral Scouting had ranked sixth among North American skaters, was seen as much of a gamble. Off the ice, he is well-spoken as well as being a top- flight player on the ice.
“We had him in the top five,” said McPhee.
A late- rising player who, a year ago, many thought would be a second- or thirdround pick at best, Glass shot up the rankings after scoring 32 goals and 94 points in 69 games in the Western Hockey League this season. He said a turning point in his development was getting cut from Canada’s Ivan Hlinka team in August.
“I think that’s what made me have such a great start to the season,” said Glass. “Wanting to prove people wrong was such a big thing. And that’s what I did.”
Now, Glass and the rest of the Golden will try to prove that Vegas can be a viable hockey market. It’s going to be a challenge. But it’s one they are all looking forward to.
“I don’t think it’s daunting, I think it’s exciting,” said Suzuki. “I think if the three of us can do something special there, it’s going to be amazing. It’s definitely going to be a pretty unreal experience to see all the players we get and just moving forward and building a great franchise.”