Things change fast in the world of pro sports and salary caps, all of which could be impacted by what decisions George McPhee makes in the next several weeks.
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The one delivered Monday from the Golden Knights was as clear as it was needed for a team trying to find itself in late February: The taste of reaching a Stanley Cup Final last season was far too delicious not to attempt a second straight helping.
Gerard Gallant, last year’s runaway winner for the Jack Adams Award as the NHL’s Coach of the Year, has the Knights back in contention for a playoff spot.
On paper, both sides won big, far more than Vegas in losing to Vancouver 3-2 in a shootout just minutes before an ancient sundial atop T-Mobile Arena began rotating and the team broke news of the deal.
Much like a room with no designated captain, Vegas seems intent, until the market forces a change in thinking or, well, William Karlsson scores 43 goals in a season again, to keep things fairly consistent when it comes to paying guys.
James Neal is back winning in the playoffs — he has 84 postseason games on his NHL resume — and is again among those counted on to lead Vegas against the San Jose Sharks in the Western Conference semifinals.
There is a saying that the only permission, the only validation, the only opinion that matters in a quest for greatness is our own, and it’s one Vegas seemed to adopt as the wins piled up this season.
The easy decision for general manager George McPhee would be to chase a Stanley Cup with those who led the Knights to such a remarkable season thus far, a run in which Neal has more than delivered on his reputation as a pure scorer.