George McPhee said the Golden Knights were left stunned by the fallout from their media mishap, and he made clear the whole episode still sits badly with him.
McPhee spoke with Andy Strickland about the situation that led to Vegas being fined and losing a 2026 second-round NHL Draft pick after former head coach John Tortorella did not speak to the media following a win over the Anaheim Ducks. The president of hockey operations said the chain of events caught him completely off guard and that he deeply regrets how it played out.
McPhee also acknowledged the cost of the punishment itself, noting that the forfeited second-round selection was too valuable to lose. With the NHL refusing to restore the pick before the 2026 NHL Draft, the Golden Knights are now down one more asset to develop or move in a trade.
Still, the broader read is that the breakdown came from Tortorella’s decision-making. Kelly McCrimmon and McPhee reportedly didn’t realize what had happened until it was already over, leaving the organization to deal with the fine and the draft-pick loss after the fact.
From that angle, the blame doesn’t land squarely on McCrimmon or McPhee. Tortorella is the one who took the team away from the podium and set the whole mess in motion, creating the kind of consequences the NHL handed down.
Could the front office have stepped in sooner? Maybe.
A quick conversation might have changed things. But as the situation showed, there’s only so much anyone can do once someone like Tortorella decides to go his own way.
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