Las Vegas franchise down to 2 primary candidates for GM job

The Las Vegas expansion franchise appears close to naming its first general manager.

This according to owner Bill Foley, who has indicated the search process is nearing an end.

"We’re hoping to have an announcement in a few days," Foley said Monday, according to Steve Carp of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "We’ve got two primary candidates and we’re trying to get this done. We need to get a scouting staff hired and whoever we hire as our GM will be responsible for putting the (scouting) staff together."

Foley wasn't naming names, but whoever lands the job will apparently be a familiar face within the hockey community.

"I can tell you the people we talked to are all well-known in the hockey community and are well-respected," Foley said. "They’re all very smart and they’ve done different things for different teams. Some are strong on the (salary) cap. Some are strong when it comes to assessing talent. But they all have strong backgrounds."

One person out of the running is Dale Tallon of the Florida Panthers, who told Carp he was never contacted by Foley despite the fact team ownership was contacted for permission to do so.

Earlier in the offseason, Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun reported former Vancouver assistant GM Laurence Gilman, former Washington GM George McPhee, Pittsburgh assistant GM Jason Botterill, former Arizona GM Don Maloney, and Montreal executive Scott Mellanby were considered to be at the top of the list of candidates.