Each passing day, it sounds more and more like this whole Las Vegas NHL expansion thing is closer to reality. Prospective team owner Bill Foley is starting a ticket drive to gauge local interest in a team, an arena is being built by MGM right behind the New York, New York casino on the Strip, and it’s clear that there is something real going on there.
It also appears that if Vegas gets a team, there will be a Flyers connection. (There’s a Flyers connection to everything in the NHL, but …. whatever.) Via TSN’s Pierre LeBrun:
A name I think you’ll remember from his playing days: Murray Craven has been a long-time friend of Bill Foley, the prospective owner of this Las Vegas hockey team. He is advising Foley right now, and if they get a team I suspect Murray Craven will be a key part in that front office alongside Foley in Las Vegas. Murray Craven, a long time Flyer and also a part of that great Canucks team in 1994. Played over 1,000 games. He lives in Montana and I think is looking to get back into hockey.
Craven was a Flyer for most of the 1980s, and he played most of his 1,000+ games in the NHL with Philadelphia. He was traded to the Flyers in 1984 along with former Phantoms head coach Joe Patterson in a deal that sent Darryl Sittler to Detroit. It was also Bob Clarke’s first move as Flyers general manager. He made his name in Philadelphia and was a key piece of those late 1980s Flyers teams that really deserved to win a Stanley Cup, but never did.
There’s a great feature on Craven on the Flyers official website, which is definitely worth a read. Would be pretty cool to see him get back into the game, especially with a team in Las Vegas.
