George McPhee has been hired as general manager of the NHL’s expansion Las Vegas franchise.
Owner Bill Foley announced McPhee as the franchise’s first GM at a news conference Wednesday afternoon in Las Vegas.
McPhee will be in charge of building the team from scratch to begin play in the 2017-18 NHL season.
McPhee most recently served as special adviser to New York Islanders GM Garth Snow. Before that he spent 16 seasons as GM of the Washington Capitals.
As the Capitals’ GM, McPhee oversaw a complete rebuild around star winger Alex Ovechkin that led to the team making six consecutive playoff appearances before he was fired in 2014.