Knights’ Deryk Engelland finalist for NHL leadership award

Deryk Engelland’s leadership on and off the ice this season for the Golden Knights was noticed by the NHL.

The 36-year-old defenseman was nominated Monday for the King Clancy Memorial Trophy, which goes to the player who best exemplifies leadership qualities on and off the ice. On Tuesday, Engelland was one of three finalists for the Mark Messier NHL Leadership Award which is given to the player who exemplifies great leadership qualities to his team on and off the ice during the regular season.

“It’s a huge honor for me,” Engelland said. “Same thing (for the Clancy). There’s a lot of good players on that list, and I’m honored to be part of it.”

Engelland’s “We are Vegas Strong” speech during the pregame ceremonies that honored the victims of the Oct. 1 Strip shooting prior to the Knights’ home opener Oct. 10 has been well-documented. But he also had a career year on the ice for the Knights with five goals and 23 points.

“It makes it extra special,” he said of having had his best season while playing in Las Vegas.

Joining Engelland as Messier finalists are Philadelphia’s Wayne Simmonds and Winnipeg’s Blake Wheeler. The winners for both the Messier and Clancy will be announced at the NHL Awards Show on June 20 at the Hard Rock Hotel.

Knights top-10 TV ratings

The annual NHL local television ratings are out and the Knights were in the top-10.

According to Sports Business Daily, the Knights’ average season local television rating in their inaugural season on AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain was 1.87, ranking them No. 9. The ratings are from 22 of the 23 U.S. NHL markets (Carolina was not included).

The rating might have been affected by airings at local bars and sports books, which are not counted in viewership. Only private homes are used in compiling the numbers. Also, Las Vegas DISH customers were unable to watch games because the satellite provider did not come to a broadcast agreement with AT&T.

According to the Nielsen Research formula, each point is worth 75,740 homes and the ratings are derived from the first five minutes of the game. The games were watched by an average of a little more than 146,000 homes.

“We are pleased with the overall television ratings during our inaugural season and we look forward to building off this strong first year in the seasons to come,” said Knights president Kerry Bubolz. “The ratings we have accumulated for our playoff games have been outstanding and we are excited about the momentum we have seen there.

“Our colleagues at AT&T SportsNet have been great partners. We have one of the largest television distribution territories in all of sports and we’ll continue to grow our fan base and engage those fans in Las Vegas and throughout our entire broadcast footprint.”

The Knights’ local ratings for the first round of the playoffs were 5.4 for Game 1, 6.3 for Game 2, 6.9 for Game 3 and 7.1 for Game 4.

The Pittsburgh Penguins had the highest regular-season local market rating among U.S.-based clubs, a 5.81, followed by the Buffalo Sabres at 4.62 and the St. Louis Blues at 3.93. The lowest rated markets were Anaheim (0.24 percent), Florida (0.27 percent) and Arizona (0.35 percent).

Goucher keeps working

Despite AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain’s coverage of the Knights having concluded for the season, Dave Goucher, the team’s television play-by-play announcer, is still working.

In a nice touch of irony, Goucher will call Game 7 of the Boston Bruins-Toronto Maple Leafs first-round series Wednesday for Westwood One Radio. Goucher was the Bruins’ radio play-by-play voice from 2000 to 2017 and has also worked for Westwood One in 2016, calling the Western Conference finals.

Contact Steve Carp at scarp@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2913. Follow @stevecarprj on Twitter.