NHL's Golden Knights ride into Whitefish

WHITEFISH — The Vegas Golden Knights have a strong connection to Whitefish.

Now, the team is hoping that Whitefish will have a strong connection with the Golden Knights.

Vegas owner Bill Foley, a Whitefish businessman who is the majority owner of Whitefish Mountain Resort and Glacier Restaurant Group, brought the team to the Flathead Valley as part of a four-state goodwill tour in an effort to drum up support for the NHL’s newest franchise.

About 70 hockey players took the ice at Stumptown Ice Den for a one-hour clinic with a pair of the team’s younger players and Vegas senior vice president Murray Craven, an 18-year NHL veteran and longtime Whitefish resident who has served as a coach and ambassador for the sport in the Flathead Valley.

The hopes, for the team at least, is that outreach programs like this will help grow a fanbase in a region that has been largely ignored by the league in the past.

“It’s important,” Craven said.

“Lots of times when you grab a young person or fan’s heart, you keep it. Las Vegas isn’t New York City, it’s not Los Angeles, it’s not Chicago. We have 2.2 million people. The rest of the state is pretty empty. A lot of the territories we’re in are not heavily populated. We want to grab as many people as we can, as far as people in Montana, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, and grab them and pull them into our vortex.

“You have the ability to go out and touch the people in communities like this that are on the fence. They haven’t picked a team. They haven’t picked Calgary, they haven’t picked Colorado, they haven’t picked whatever team’s out there. That’s where you have a chance to be the organization that grabs them and hopefully they become Golden Knights fans. That’s what this is all about.

“It’s a responsibility of all NHL teams to build youth hockey. That’s our future players, that’s our future fans, that’s our future. If you’re not heavily invested in doing that, you’re probably not in the right business. I think Bill’s heart is in building youth hockey. We’re going to continue to build it in Las Vegas. We want to reach out to these communities, like Whitefish. I toiled here in this very rink for 10 years. We would’ve loved to have had this type of interaction with NHL teams. Hopefully, down the road, we can help them financially and be involved in their youth programs.”

The area youth players that were able to make the clinic were treated to stickhandling, shooting and skating drills by the on-ice personnel.

“It’s awesome,” said Kalispell’s Logan Hill, a wing and centerman for the Flathead Fusion. “It’s the best thing that ever happened.”

“It was so awesome. I grew up with Murray Craven as a coach. It’s such a great opportunity that he can show us what hockey is like in the big leagues.”

Hockey Hall of Fame chairman Lanny McDonald, another longtime resident and hockey ambassador in the Flathead Valley, liked what he saw on the ice.

“If you’re going to grow the game, this is exactly how you do it,” McDonald said. “They’re going to have fans for life.

“I think, long term, every (local) team should consider switching their names to the Golden Knights.

“They’ve got a built-in fanbase. To see so many kids out on the ice, I was trying to figure out how they could pull this off. They did an unbelievable job. It was well organized. It was great to see everyone out there and the kids having a good time. Look at everyone is wearing Golden Knights gear. That’s the way it should be.

“With Murray and Bill being from this area and bringing it back here, that’s going to pay dividends down the road. What a great way to kickstart minor hockey this year.”

Vegas team officials present hammered the intent to return to Whitefish, and continue to grow the sport in the region.

“We’re going to be in Whitefish probably every year because of the connection the team has with Whitefish through Murray and myself,” Foley said.

“We’re going to (invest) here and we’re going to do it in other towns in Montana. You start when they’re young. The young (kids) start supporting the team, they start wearing Golden Knights jerseys and hats, that’s where we’re going to get to. Next year, when we come out, these kids are going to be wearing Golden Knights gear out here.

“Next year when we come here we going to probably have some youth hockey support from one of the foundations. So, all the guys (on the ice) will have Golden Knights gear on. We’ll provide that. We’ll do the same thing down in Kalispell and Missoula and Bozeman, so Montana becomes Golden Knights country, period.”