LEADING OFF

As you saw Wednesday night, we are officially a pro sports town with the Golden Knights picking 30 players in the NHL Expansion Draft.

With that in mind, we are about to embark on a variety of changes as pro sports take over our town.

We already have shown our commitment to cover these new teams with the hiring of Michael Gehlken for the Raiders beat and moving Steve Carp to the Golden Knights beat.

We also are on the verge of being the first department involved in the RJ’S video production studio. With that in mind, I would like to announce the following staff changes:

■ Gilbert Manzano will become the Raiders backup/ NFL writer based in Las Vegas. He will write the weekly NFL notes package, and he will have a heavy emphasis on videos through news analysis in English and Spanish. He also will continue to cover boxing.

■ David Schoen will serve as the Golden Knights’ backup/ NHL writer. He will write the weekly NHL notes package, work with Carp to cover games at home and selected road games while spending much of his time in videos about the Knights. He will start these duties after he finishes covering the World Series of Poker.

■ Ben Gotz will take on video talent duties, serving as host of various video productions.

■ Mark Anderson will cover the UNLV football and men’s basketball programs while keeping an eye on the rest of the university’s athletics.

■ Betsy Helfand, who covers the 51s, again will be covering the UNLV women’s basketball program along with keeping tabs on the valley’s major events.

■ Adam Hill, who covers the MMA, will help Anderson with the UNLV fall transition by covering early season men’s basketball games.

Yes, don’t worry: Ed Graney and Ron Kantowski will continue as the department’s opinion columnists. (I get that question every time I announce staff changes.)

We are excited to see how they will help shape the RJ Sports report in print and digital.