The Future and Secret Past of Hockey in Las Vegas

Hockey has proven to be a hardy survivor of the Las Vegas desert. There were blooms of the winter sport long before Bill Foley was awarded an NHL franchise last year. Before the ECHL's Las Vegas Wranglers' raucous midnight games in the early part of the century. Before 17-year-old Radek Bonk of the Las Vegas Thunder lit up the IHL. Even before Wayne Gretzky shrugged off heat, locusts, and the New York Rangers when the Kings skated outside Caesars Palace in 1991.

In fact, contrary to popular belief, the Kings-Rangers outdoor game isn't the NHL's first foray into Sin City.

In the fall of 1968, some bleary-eyed Chicago Black Hawks stumbled out of the casinos, into the blinding light of the famous Las Vegas Strip.

"We hit a few things out there," laughed Tom Reid, who was entering his sophomore NHL season. "We did not hit our curfew."

The Black Hawks were playing back-to-back exhibition games at the newly-opened Las Vegas Ice Palace opposite the Western Hockey League's Portland Buckaroos. According to the Las Vegas Sun, just 1,000 fans dotted the Palace. For Reid, now the radio color commentator for the Minnesota Wild, the enthusiastic crowd still made an impression.

"People were pretty excited about just having hockey there and having an NHL team come to the area," he said.

On Sept. 30, Chicago edged Portland 2-1. Bobby Hull contributed an assist, while Stan Mikita was kept off the board. The ice, Reid remembered, wasn't great. The next night, the Hawks soared to an 8-2 win, with Pit Martin scoring a trifecta of goals, and Reid also notching one in the rout.

But for the Fort Erie, Ontario, native, the on-the-ice memories paled in comparison to the bright lights which were beckoning outside. "Most of us were from very small towns in Canada," Reid said. "To go to a city like Las Vegas, which was pretty well lit up, was exciting."

A half-century later, Las Vegas is just as luminous, and perhaps, just as inhospitable for ice hockey.

Outside, it was 115 degrees. Marc-Andre Fleury shook his head three times when asked about the improbable chain of events which led him here.

In June 2003, the Pittsburgh Penguins selected Fleury No. 1 overall at the NHL draft in Nashville. Fourteen years later, he wore a Pittsburgh jersey for the last time, in Nashville, as the Penguins hoisted the Stanley Cup.

On June 21, Fleury was selected by the Golden Knights in the expansion draft. The next afternoon, he was already hard at work at a local gymnasium, showing over 100 kids, most of whom had never held a hockey stick, how to—of all things—score a goal.

"I'm lucky to still be around," the 32-year-old smiled, "having the second chapter of my career coming here."

Vegas will need this kind of temperament from its stars in order to sell hockey to a community whose greatest exposure to ice has been found mostly in cocktails.

According to USA Hockey's most recent figures, Nevada has 1,382 registered youth and adult hockey players. In contrast, Pennsylvania boasts 31,965. Exactly one person from Nevada—Jason Zucker, who was actually born in California—has made the NHL. According to Hockey Reference, Pennsylvania has delivered 35 NHL players. Fleury's native Quebec, 807.

But the effect of the Golden Knights has been immediate, in ways big and small.

"Just with the most recent tryouts we had at the local rink, couldn't find a parking spot," chuckled Vegas Jr. Golden Knights U14 head coach Evan Zucker. "I had to drive around the parking lot four times. It's never been like that."

Because of greater demand, the Jr. Golden Knights have already added two more squads this fall. "We've actually added a third U10 team and a third U12 team," said Jr. Golden Knights director of coaches Gabe Gauthier. "We're expecting 50 brand-new kids [this fall]. We have about 230 in our house league program now." The successful Jr. Kings program, which Gauthier estimates is made up of about 1,000 players, offers a goal which he hopes to approach in five years.

The Golden Knights themselves have just completed construction of a two-sheet rink in Las Vegas Valley community Summerlin, which will ease demand for ice. Demand, of course, is relative. This new practice/community facility will result in five sheets of ice over three Las Vegas locations, which is a pittance compared to other NHL cities. Just for example, Southern California boasts 29 rinks.

"You have to have appropriate growth," countered Golden Knights senior vice president Murray Craven. "It wouldn't be wise to open up three brand-new facilities in Las Vegas right now because everyone would suffer at the end of the day."

Craven hopes to have a couple more double-sheet rinks built in the next decade, pointing to Henderson, Nevada, and North Las Vegas as the most likely destinations.

Hand and hand with "appropriate growth" is ensuring that more youth are getting into the sport. The Golden Knights have hosted multiple hockey-focused events around town, giving away sticks and street hockey balls to children. The organization hoped to put 5,000 sticks into the hands of Vegas youth by this month.

Street hockey isn't ice hockey, but fits the environment.

"In Las Vegas, for many months, it's a great climate to be playing outside," noted Craven. "Not everybody, either economically or just ability, is cut out to be on the ice. But there's many other ways to participate in hockey."

At the more advanced levels, Vegas has partnered with the Nevada Storm, the city's only traveling youth hockey program. The Storm, founded in 2005, have rebranded themselves the Vegas Jr. Golden Knights.

They expect to find similar success with their new moniker—last year, the U10 Storm won a prestigious tournament in North Dakota, beating the best U10 teams from North Dakota, Minnesota, and Canada. The high school Storm, who compete in the Anaheim Ducks High School Hockey League, advanced to the Division III finals.

"When I was in San Jose, the Sharks were just starting the Jr. Sharks program," recalled Craven, a 19-year NHL veteran who played in the Bay Area in the late 90s. "That whole Jr. Ducks, Jr. Kings, those are the programs we're modeling after. They've done a great job of branding their youth hockey and growing hockey in their respective communities."

Vegas is also invested in girls hockey. They will be debuting the city's first two traveling all-girls teams this fall. These U14 and U10 squads will be coached by Gloria Wong. All this is close to Craven's heart, as his daughter Sara is currently playing for the University of Calgary.

In all, the Golden Knights hope to double the number of Nevada's registered players in three years. In a decade, they'd like to see, conservatively, more than 5,000. That will lead to the creation of other youth hockey organizations in the city, which suits Gauthier just fine.

"I can see it being just like California, where in five years, we're going to have another four-to-five different organizations," forecast the former LA King. "Then looking up north in Reno, we could have some hockey up there. Now we could have some in-state rivalry and compete for a state championship."

"All we have to do is expose people to the game," Craven said. "Build it and they will come."

Twenty-five years ago, they did build it, and people did come.

After the Black Hawks' brief landing in 1968, the Gamblers, then the Outlaws, played at the Ice Palace. Both semi-pro entities folded quickly, and the Ice Palace would become a church, among other things. That wasn't the plan, of course.

Brian Bulmer, who skated for both original Las Vegas teams, revealed that Outlaws owner Ralph Engelstad had gone as far as selecting a location for a brand-new ice hockey rink.

"He even dug the hole for a rink," Bulmer said. The Outlaws were slated to join Engelstad's short-lived Southwest Hockey League, but the facility was never finished. The Outlaws vanished in 1975, and with them, professional ice hockey evaporated in Las Vegas. However, their scent lived on.

"I remember playing against these kids [in 1973]. They were kind of the Jr. Outlaws back then," recalled John McNicholas. "[About 20 years later], I'm coaching a youth hockey program, and somebody hands me this bag of jerseys. It turns out, they're the same jerseys these kids wore when they were playing against me."

Sin City hockey, like those hand-me-down tops, managed to survive the 80s by a thread. But in 1991, the sport would finally throw down a winning hand, as Gretzky's Kings faced Bernie Nicholls' Rangers in an outdoor game at Caesars Palace to over 13,000 spectators. Following this exhibition, the International Hockey League's Las Vegas Thunder—headlined by Bonk, who was vying to be the top pick in the 1994 NHL draft—skated to near-capacity crowds at the Thomas & Mack Center. Bonk, who starred there for parts of two seasons, ended up going No. 3 overall to the Ottawa Senators and enjoyed a 14-year NHL career.

Around this time, a five-year-old Evan Zucker took to the ice for the first time at Santa Fe Station Casino. His father Scott had just helped build the city's first regulation roller hockey rink.

Veteran Top Rank Boxing publicist Lee Samuels fell in love with the sport because of his son Eddie. For him, the key person in Vegas hockey history isn't a Gretzky or a Foley.

"The game-changer as far as ice hockey in Las Vegas was coach Rob Pallin," he said. "Before him, we had teams coached by fathers. We'd lose 15-0 to the Jr. Kings."

In 2002, Pallin's sophomore season behind the bench, he led the AA Las Vegas Mustangs to the USA Hockey National Championships. This was the state's first-ever appearance at the 79-year-old youth tournament.

"That launched great hockey," said Samuels, whose son played on this trailblazing squad.

With Zucker up front, Pallin returned to the nationals in 2006. Then in 2010, the U14 Nevada Storm, helmed by Geno McCue, would win the state's first and only national championship.

Zucker, along with Micah Sanford and Adam Naglich, were part of a first wave of elite Las Vegas youth players. His brother Jason, who was a stick boy for the Thunder, would become the city's first NHLer.

So while the Thunder, and a host of other professional outfits from the Ice Dice to the Wranglers, would not last, the sport has been budding in a hostile desert for over 25 years.

Now, the Golden Knights are the city's best chance for hockey to thrive.

From Los Angeles to Nashville, the NHL has colonized some strange worlds over the last half-century. With the Vegas Golden Knights set to take home ice for the first time, this promises to be the league's strangest trip yet.