It appears George McPhee is back at it, filling the seventh spot in the Las Vegas front office with the fifth person who was a member of the Washington Capitals staff when he was let go.
According to a tweet from Steve Carp of the Las Vegas Review Journal, Las Vegas has hired Vojtech Kucera as Director Of European Scouting. Here’s the tweet, because I think stories look cooler when they have embedded tweets.
GMGM confirms hire of Vojtech Kucera as Las Vegas NHL team’s Director of European Scouting. Yes, they worked together in D.C.
— Steve Carp (@stevecarprj) August 16, 2016
Kucera has been a European scout for the Caps since 1999 and was directly linked to the selection of Jakob Vrana by McPhee in the first round (13th overall) of the 2014 NHL Entry Draft.
He was one of many players in the 70’s and 80’s to defect from Eastern Europe to pursue a career in the NHL. Kucera, however, never played a game in the league. He has retraced his roots to the Czech Republic where he owns the Ice Arena Letnany.
Kucera becomes the second scout, with Wil Nichol, to leave the Capitals organization and join McPhee in Las Vegas.
UPDATE (10:29 AM 8/16/16) – An official press release has been sent out confirming the hire.
