It looks like Boston Bruins legend Patrice Bergeron can add prognosticator to his long list of talents.
At the Golden Knights end of season availabilities Friday, Vegas president of hockey operations George McPhee told the media that Bergeron was among the first to predict their 2022-23 Stanley Cup victory.
Beregeron’s prediction came last summer when the Golden Knights were looking for a new head coach after they fired Peter DeBoer. McPhee had the idea that an old friend might come available, so he talked to general manager Kelly McCrimmon about Bruce Cassidy.
“It looks like this guy might be available,” McPhee told McCrimmon last off-season. “If you read between the lines on what’s going on in Boston, he might be available.”
Sure enough, the Bruins fired Cassidy after six seasons behind the bench in Boston.
When he came available, McPhee and McCrimmon were ready to jump on the opportunity, but not before talking to one of the best two-way forwards to ever play the game.
So the two executives had Golden Knights captain Mark Stone call up Bergeron, who Cassidy had just coached for six seasons, to ask about the 58-year-old bench boss.
“They had their conversation, and then at the end of the call, Patrice said ‘Holy smokes, Vegas is going to hire Bruce Cassidy and they’re going to win the Stanley Cup next year,’” McPhee explained.
Well, turns out he wasn’t wrong.
This is actually the second time McPhee and Cassidy have teamed up in the NHL. McPhee actually gave Cassidy his first head coaching gig with the Washington Capitals in 2002. Things didn’t exactly go as planned, and McPhee fired Cassidy after three seasons.
Safe to say things are off to a much better start this time around.
Cassidy just finished the first year of a five-year, $22.5 million dollar contract according to capfriendly.com.
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