Knights turned to Deryk Engelland in best, worst of times

When they needed a voice to address a city shattered and grieving from a mass shooting, it was Deryk Engelland.

When they needed someone to accept the Clarence S. Campbell Bowl in the capital city of a Canadian province, it was Deryk Engelland.

You don’t need a title to be a leader or a letter C on your sweater to be viewed as one.

The Golden Knights haven’t in their short existence named a captain, but it was Engelland who represented them in the best and worst of times these past three years.

He was as classy as he was understated, his moments in the spotlight historic and yet never defined by a hint of conceit. Engelland retired from the NHL on Tuesday, this after appearing in 671 regular-season games over parts of 11 seasons.

He will now transition into a role with the team’s foundation, serving as the special assistant to owner Bill Foley.

How appropriate.

Hometown feel

It’s what set him apart from all others during the 2017 expansion season, the fact Engelland had history with Las Vegas. He had played for the Wranglers of the ECHL. He met his wife here. His children were born here. This was home. Made him different from the other misfits.

I first interviewed him at the team’s inaugural development camp just months before the puck dropped for real, then a 35-year-old defenseman who undoubtedly knew his was a career nearing its end.

“Every day, there is more excitement for me and my family, knowing I’ll be playing in our hometown,” he said then.

Little did anyone know the terror that would follow just months later or, for that matter, the part a hockey team would play in helping Las Vegas heal.

The Knights were a conduit by which the city began its lengthy and grueling journey back to normalcy after the Route 91 Harvest festival shooting Oct. 1, 2017, when 60 were killed and hundreds of others were injured from bullets raining down from a suite at Mandalay Bay.

It was Engelland who stood with a microphone in one hand and a hockey stick in the other Oct. 10 at T-Mobile Arena, chosen by the team to address a crowd of more than 18,000. It was him who ended what was a 58-second speech with the words “We are Vegas Strong.”

“To be looked on for that leadership, any older guy in the league knows that it’s a big part of your job,” Engelland said Tuesday. “It’s nice to know the players on your team thought of you that way as well.

“You go back 17 years, when I started with the Wranglers here, if you asked me then if I’d be playing in the NHL in Vegas and would have the best fans and the craziest arena in the league, I would have probably laughed.”

It’s time. Engelland is 38 and declined the option to be traded in the offseason, wanting the last sweater of his career to be that of the Knights. But he led until the very end — despite not playing at all once the team returned from the COVID-19 pause — in working with younger prospects such as Peyton Krebs during scratch ice time.

“That guy,” Krebs said, “is a workhorse.”

Always there

This was Engelland minutes after the Knights clinched the Western Conference title during that magical expansion season, soon after he was handed the Campbell Bowl following a series-clinching 2-1 victory at Winnipeg.

“After Oct. 1, those first games … you want to play for the city, the people that were affected by it,” he said. “To make this run, win this series, it’s awesome for us, but it all comes back to the city and the people affected by that. After such a horrible tragedy, to go on this run and get this far, there were a lot of positives.”

Some have already written the history of that run to a Stanley Cup Final. There are bigger names. Far more impressive on-ice contributions. Memorable snapshots that never included Engelland.

But none played a bigger role in connecting this particular team to Las Vegas. When they needed him, in good times and the absolute worst of them, Deryk Engelland was always there.

He never needed a title or letter. Guys just knew.

It was understood.

Ed Graney is a Sigma Delta Chi Award winner for sports column writing and can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be heard on “The Press Box,” ESPN Radio 100.9 FM and 1100 AM, from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. Monday through Friday. Follow @edgraney on Twitter.