LAS VEGAS – He doesn't have any players, or a coach, or an equipment manager or even a PR person, yet there was George McPhee, on Labor Day, hard at work at an upscale building in the Las Vegas suburb of Summerlin.
That building, bought 14 months earlier to house one of billionaire businessman Bill Foley's title insurance companies, is doubling as the administration office for Foley's newest baby — the 31st National Hockey League franchise.
The team will debut at T-Mobile Arena — off the Las Vegas Strip between New York-New York and Monte Carlo — next October.
McPhee, who spent 17 years with the Washington Capitals, was hired to manage the soon-to-be named team in July, and wasn't the only one working on this national holiday. So was Katy Boettinger, McPhee's director of hockey administration with the Capitals and his first hire in Sin City.
"Oh, shoot," McPhee said, realizing he locked himself out of the office. He dialed Boettinger's cell. "Katy, I left the thing — the key card — on my desk."
It had been a busy weekend for McPhee. Two days earlier, he bought a house, a car, two beds, checked out a church and toured two schools for one of his three children — 11-year-old Adelaide, who will remain in Maryland with mom, Leah, this school year — to attend.
After two years of speculation that the NHL would become the first of the four major professional sports leagues to call Las Vegas home, McPhee will get to build the franchise from the ground up.
"It hit me when I was filling out my change-of-license form for the DMV," McPhee said. "I was writing down my address, 'Las Vegas, Nevada,' and was like, 'Holy cow, we're here.'