Golden Knights visit Whitefish

More than 70 young hockey players took to the ice Wednesday night for a chance to skate with players from the National Hockey League’s newest franchise.

The Las Vegas Golden Knights made a stop at Stumptown Ice Den as part of the Vegas Golden Kights Road Trip, which brings youth hockey clinics to cities across the West.

The team is owned by Whitefish businessman Bill Foley, who is also the majority owner of Whitefish Mountain Resort and Glacier Restaurant Group. Senior vice president of the team Murray Craven, an 18-year NHL veteran and longtime Whitefish resident, also plays a key role on the team and worked with kids at the clinic.

Players rotated around through several drill stations on the ice, with Golden Knights players Jake Bischoff and Alex Tuch and Craven working with the young players in attendance.

Whitefish is connected to the young franchise, Foley said, and building a relationship with his new team is a big priority for him and Craven.

“It feels great, it’s fantastic,” Foley said of bringing the NHL to Whitefish. “You can see the enthusiasm. I have a house here in Whitefish ... and [Murray Craven] has a house in Whitefish, so it’s important to us to have that community outreach and come up here to Whitefish and bring a couple players up a do a little clinic. Obviously they’re having a great time out there.”

Foley grew up with a hockey background, he says, though he jokes about choosing to start a hockey franchise because it was the only major league sport he could afford.

Season tickets for the Golden Knights this year are already sold out, he said, and single ticket sales have been strong so far for a city who hasn’t even seen their team play yet.

The clinic tour focuses on the Golden Knights’ primary television market areas, which include Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada and Utah.

Along with Whitefish, the team made stops in Deer Lodge and Bozeman before heading to Salt Lake City for the final clinic.

“We’re going to be in Whitefish probably every year, because there’s just a connection that the team has with Whitefish, through Murray and myself,” Foley said.

Craven, who has a history of promoting the sport in the Flathead Valley and in Whitefish, said the chance to get local kids involved with NHL players in Whitefish was something he didn’t even imagine a dozen years ago.

“This is kind of a dream. I was in the formation of this rink when we started this idea to build this arena here and I wouldn’t have said 12 years ago that we’d have an NHL team here or even the presence of one,” he said.

“We probably have 60, 70 kids out here, so that’s fantastic. When we started the program here years ago, we were lucky to have 30 or 40 kids, so you can just see how it’s grown,” he added.

While a primary intent of the tour is getting the team name out in key market areas, Craven said the goal of the clinic is for the kids to have a good time.

“We want them to obviously know who we are, but at the same time they’re out here just having fun with their friends,” he said.

For the Kights players, Craven said, getting to lead these clinics is a fun reminder of what drew them into the sport initially.

While the NHL is business for the players now, Bischoff said the clinics bring back the days of looking up to any older player in pads and skates.

“I was obviously that age at one time and I remember being super excited to see like a high school hockey player, I thought it was the coolest thing ever,” he said. “So I think seeing how excited they are and being able to bring that excitement to them is pretty cool.”