Knights’ McPhee up for GM of the Year

George McPhee, who built the Vegas Golden Knights into the most successful expansion franchise in NHL history, is one of three finalists for the league’s General Manager of the Year award.

The others vying for the honor are the Winnipeg Jets’ Kevin Cheveldayoff and the Tampa Bay Lightning’s Steve Yzerman.

Voting by the league’s 31 GMs plus five other executives and five media members was conducted after the conference semifinals. All three candidates have their teams in the conference finals.

The winner will be announced June 20 at the NHL Awards in Las Vegas.

The Golden Knights became the first expansion team among the four major North American sports to claim a division title in a debut season (excluding the Philadelphia Flyers in 1967-68, as the NHL’s entire West Division consisted of expansion teams that year). Vegas went 51-24-7, the best winning percentage for any North American first-year team not joining from another league.

Vegas then became the first expansion team to sweep its opening playoff series, wiping out the Los Angeles Kings in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. The Golden Knights got past the San Jose Sharks in six games in the Western Conference semifinals, and they took a 2-1 lead on the Winnipeg Jets in the West finals with a 4-2 win Wednesday.

Cheveldayoff has Winnipeg in the conference finals for the first time in the city’s NHL history — either for the franchise that eventually moved and became the Arizona Coyotes or the current franchise that relocated after starting as the Atlanta Thrashers.

The Jets posted the second-highest point total in the NHL this season, behind the Central Division rival Predators, and Winnipeg knocked Nashville out of the postseason in a seven-game Western Conference semifinal series.

The Lightning won the Atlantic Division and posted the highest point total in the Eastern Conference, a franchise-record 113. They then cruised to five-game playoff series wins over the New Jersey Devils and the Boston Bruins, but they currently trail the Washington Capitals 2-1 in the Eastern Conference finals.

Yzerman won the GM of the Year award in 2014-15. Neither McPhee nor Cheveldayoff has captured the honor.

–Field Level Media