Five More Front Officer Staffers Hired, Official Announcements Coming Soon

Just like we said it would, it’s coming in fast and furious now! Reported by Alex Prewitt with Sports Illustrated, George McPhee has brought five new people on board in his front office.

Spoke with Vegas GM George McPhee. Said 5 more front-office positions have been filled, contracts agreed upon, announcements expected soon.

— Alex Prewitt (@alex_prewitt) August 3, 2016

Those include, per McPhee:

1. Cap/CBA expert
2. Dir. of hockey ops
3. Dir. of player development
4. Goalie scout/director
5. Executive asst

— Alex Prewitt (@alex_prewitt) August 3, 2016

First thing McPhee listed under duties for the director of hockey ops was “vetting” analytics candidates. https://t.co/Wn5xW3Jqco

— Alex Prewitt (@alex_prewitt) August 3, 2016

Murray Craven confirmed to us that press releases are being worked up, but could not give exact dates to expect them.

Tom Lynn, former assistant General Manager with the Minnesota Wild during the expansion era, breaks down the importance of the five positions.

The two names Tom mentioned as possible candidates are Lawrence Gilman, who was the assistant GM with the Canucks from 2008-2015, and Frank Provenzano, who was previously the Assistant GM with the Dallas Stars and worked with McPhee from 1997-04 in Washington and in Vancouver prior to that.

According to a source of ours however, Provenzano is unlikely to leave Dallas.

We’re just announcing them as they start rolling into the office. We’re doing pretty well. Everything is falling into place. -George McPhee to SI

McPhee also shared a bit of information into the process he’s been going through trying to get his staff in place quickly, but intelligently.

Although you’d love to have it built overnight, it’s not going to happen that way. I’ve had to step back and slow down a few times to make sure you’re getting it right and getting the right people. There are moments when you’re on the phone with somebody and five texts and four emails and four other phone calls come in at the same time. It’s been very, very hectic in that way. Probably thousands of texts, at least a thousand emails, 400-500 phone calls at this point. -McPhee

Prewitt spoke to us after he finished talking to McPhee.

With the hiring of Kelly McCrimmon, and now these five, it puts the front office staff up to seven total members while the business/ticketing staff sits at nine full time members, not including Craven. Both sides will continue to grow rapidly and we’ll continue tying to stay as up to date as possible.

UPDATE: Wil Nichol was announced as Director of Player Development at 10:27 AM on August 4th.