On an interview on KXNT Radio with Alan Stock (and me), The Creator confirmed that the final payment, which allows the team “full entry” into the league will not clear in time for the trade deadline on March 1st.
We won’t make it before the trade deadline. The documentation is unbelievable. I have documentation with the league on a franchise agreement. I have documentation on a loan we are taking out with CitiBank. I’ve got my personal stuff, which all has to get in and get approved. If you saw the stack of documents you’d say it’s not a pretty picture. -The Creator
What it means is the Vegas Golden Knights cannot be officially active at this trade deadline. Deals can be agreed to in principal but cannot be signed off on by the league.
George is having informal calls informal talks with various GMs. Other teams want to do more than we want to do. They want to lock up some of their players for the playoff run and after the playoff run. We aren’t going to get ahead of ourselves. George is going to make good deals. George is a deal maker especially in hockey. If we give up the right to draft a good player we are going to get something good for it. -The Creator
The next question is whether or not the payment will clear in time for George McPhee to attend the GM meetings beginning on March 6th.
In the end, the significance of this will always be unknown. Would deals have actually gotten done? Would McPhee have been willing to sign the dotted line on not selecting a player with four months still to go before the Expansion Draft? We’ll never know.
This also delays the ability to sign college free agents and undrafted players.
Well we just feel the sooner the better. We’d like to start doing some business. We’re ready to go and it’s important for us to be involved. It’s important for us to be at the table at the GM’s meetings because there are important decisions regarding the league and all of hockey in general are being made there and Las Vegas should be heard. –George McPhee to Puck Daddy on February 9th
But the fact of the matter is now we know for sure, the 2017 trade deadline will not involve the Vegas Golden Knights.
Phisig150
The NHL is a fucking joke. Just because you once let some dude in his mom’s basement buy a franchise now you make a legit billionaire and businessman jump through hoop after hoop after uneeded hoop. Can’t believe they couldn’t this done in time. I lay this all on Bettman. Why exactly is this incompetent ahole still in charge?
PhiSig 150
Not sure exactly what the NHL is worried about. We’re talking about draft protections for an expansion draft that hasn’t happened and draft compensation for an entry draft that likewise hasn’t occurred. If Foley is a fraud (which he’s clearly not) then you just rescind the draft picks. There is no payroll to worry about him making. I’m pretty sure the NHL wants Las Vegas to succeed badly which only goes to underline their utter stupidity by continuously putting up obstacles that undercut the health of our club. For example not letting Foley work on the name and logo until the team was official and prohibiting any and all gambling associations. I should have been able to have gone to the open house with a jersey (an Aces one at that) today. The way the NHL has dropped the ball and not really helped Foley through this whole process is why the league is and will continue to be the 4th most popular league until Bettman is finally run out of town.
cody
This is Foley, it was never going to be Aces. “Las Vegas Aces” looks and sounds bad anyway.
RJL
Las Vegas Aces would have been amazing. Nice try Foley.
Tom
Aces would’ve been badass in my opinion, but yeah, Foley already had his heart set on _____Knights. Bettman is a piece of shit, and he looks like a low-budget Kevin Spacey.
Murrayyyyy
Foley could have worked on the logo before it was official but he had his mind set on black knights with no backup plan. That’s not the leagues fault. That is 100% his fault.
There is no way that they were releasing the Vegas team jersey before the end of the season. A certain owner said it would happen without his ability to understand the change from Reebok/Adidas in between the season. Everyone in the retail community knew this but he shot off something again while not having any power to make it happen. This wasn’t the NHL’s fault. They never said it would happen because they know they know their contract with Adidas SLD.
There is a huge difference between the league helping a guy versus a guy just saying whatever he wants without understanding that there are rules to everything that he has to abide by.
RJL
100% my take on things as well.
PhiSig 150
So Foley who’s trying to land a new franchise should work on a name and logo ahead of being awarded the team and risk pissing off the NHL or Addidas the NHL’s new apparel company should risked starting their relationship off on a rocky start by working on designs behind the NHL’s backs? I’m not letting Foley off the hook completely. He could have gone with a much better name but the NHL could have worked with him well ahead of time in the event he gets the franchise, helped him with the concept, been receptive to names that might having gambling references just as long as they’re not over the top, and helped him iron any potential trademark issues. Then to lock him out of all transactions until he’s paid in full and setting the initial last payment after the trade deadline is just asinine to me.
The NFL, NBA, and MLB are much better at making money. I’m going to speculate that they give their expansion teams much more support. I don’t recall any trade mark issues with any of these leagues teams and I would go out on a limb and say each of these teams names and logos were announced much earlier and merchandise including jerseys were released much sooner. I would also suspect that the expansion rules to compile the roster for these teams were much friendlier to the expansion team than the NHL’s rules. It would be a great article idea for Ken to compare and contrast this expansion process to those of other leagues’ expansions.
Murrayyyyy
It’s really not hard to find out stuff like this. For example:
Columbus’ hopes for the bid dimmed when the May referendum failed. However, Nationwide announced on May 31, 1997, that it would finance the $150-million arena. Subsequently, on June 25, 1997, the NHL announced that Columbus would receive a new franchise.[4] Afterwards a “Name the Team” contest was held with the help from Wendy’s throughout central Ohio during the month of August 1997. Out of 14,000 submitted entries, the franchise with help from the NHL narrowed the 14,000 entries down to 10 names. Then with the information received from owner John H. McConnell regarding Columbus’ history, the League and the franchise narrowed the list of potential names down to two – Blue Jackets and Justice. The former, which referenced Ohio’s contributions to the American Civil War, was eventually announced as the team name in November.
—————-
On June 25, 1997, the NHL announced that Minnesota had been awarded an expansion franchise, to begin play in the 2000–01 season. The six finalist team names for the new NHL franchise (Blue Ox, Freeze, Northern Lights, Voyageurs, White Bears, and Wild), were announced on November 20, 1997.[8] Jac Sperling was named Chief Executive Officer of the Minnesota team,[9] Doug Risebrough was named General Manager, Tod Leiweke was named President, and Martha Fuller was named Chief Financial Officer.
The team was officially named the Wild, with the unveiling occurring at Aldrich Arena in the suburb of Maplewood on January 22, 1998.
—————–
So TL:DR Columbus awarded in June. Narrowed down to 10 names in August out of contest. Eventually to two names. Team name came out in November. Minnesota awarded in June. Narrowed to six in November. Named Jan 22nd.
Remind me again when Vegas was awarded a franchise and when the team name came out again?
By the way, they didn’t play a game for 3 years after being awarded a club while Vegas is squeezing everything into on season.
Phisig150
Thanks for looking that up. So based on what you found we’re right on track with previous NHL expansions. I was more interested in comparing and contrasting how the MLB, NFL, and NBA handle expansion vs. NHL. Which would be quite a bit of work that I’m to lazy to do on my own. My hypothesis is that those leagues handle the expansion process much better and the the incoming teams are give a lot more assitance maybe not in roster composition but certainly in marketing and branding.
James
@Ken Boehlke
Do you have audio? I would love to hear what Foley had to say
Many Thanks
Ken Boehlke
I’m working on that. It’s not technically my audio, because I was on with CBS Radio at the time. I haven’t been back to get the approval to post it on their site so I can share it here. Hang in there, it should happen.
James
Much appreciated
RJ
Real talk, is this Foley or Bettman who screwed this up? Is Foley doing everything exactly correct and it was never the leagues intent to have Las Vegas active at the trade deadline and GM meeting? Did Bettman just not understand the consequences of the agreement? Did Foley NOT do something he was supposed to? I have virtually no confidence in either Foley or Bettman, but I do believe in George McPhee; and somebody is tying his hands behind his back.
PhiSig 150
Taking into account Foley’s business background and Bettman’s track record I’m going to go with NHL botched this. Pretty sure Foley know how to submit financial documents and meet deadlines.
RJ
My thought is that if the NHL botched this then it must be easy for the NHL to fix right? If Las Vegas is restricted from being active in this year’s trade deadline and might even keep our GM out of the GM meeting because the NHL messed up then can’t they just waive the final payment rule? In my mind either this is exactly how it was always going to work and Foley didn’t understand what he was signing or this is punitive because Foley didn’t do something he was supposed to have done.
I don’t have any love lost for Bettman, but time and time again Foley shows to be not ready for the big leagues. My gut tells me he dropped this ball.
Jay the Pro Audio Dude
Ken, Sinbin made the yahoo story for this one
https://www.yahoo.com/sports/news/vegas-golden-knights-wont-be-players-at-nhl-trade-deadline-report-041304822.html
Ken Boehlke
Love those guys over there.
Phisig150
So Ken who gets the blame for this NHL or Foley?
Ken Boehlke
My official answer to your question is neither. I think the banks are the much bigger problem in this case. However, if I had to choose one or the other it’s got to be the NHL. They put the payment date in the middle of April. Why? They didn’t think the Vegas GM would want to be involved in the deadline? Involved in the GM meetings? It was Foley who opted to try and move it up.
He can take a bit of blame because I think he was a bit naive on what was actually going to go into completely the process and giving the league what they need, but really how is he supposed to know? The league should have been there to help him. In the end, it probably won’t make a ton of difference, but this one shouldn’t go as a mark on Bill. He did what he could, and the league didn’t help him out. Heck, the league didn’t even think about why he would have wanted to put it in early, which is ludicrous to me.
Todd Little
Like I posted here awhile back in a different article, VGK was never going to be an off-ice player during the 2016-17 regular season. No expansion team that I ever remember (and I’ve been following the NHL since the mid-70s) has made deadline day deals the season before they start playing. Wasn’t going to happen, payment or not. VGK will probably start by signing undrafted prospects who finish up with NCAA and Juniors. And then start making offseason deals with the other teams in preparation for the expansion draft.