The community has always been at the forefront of everything the Golden Knights organization does, and while it may be the off-season, that doesn’t mean there can’t still be pucks in play. 

The Knights organization spent mid-July on their annual road trip with a series of free youth on-ice hockey clinics. 

Nothing but fun in Northern Nevada 😃#VGKRoadTrip | @A1GarageDoorshttps://t.co/q20ZyFudD2

— Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) July 14, 2025

Northern Nevada was the first stop for the Knights' staff. The first round of 100 kids ages 5 to 13 took part in two on-ice hockey clinics. Led by Sheri Hudspeth, Director of Youth Hockey Programs, and her devoted team of coaches, the sessions were packed with energy. Golden Knights broadcaster Shane Hnidy and Tahoe Knight Monsters forward Anthony Collins joined in, offering their guidance to all of the young participants.

The young players learned new skills, met mascots Chance and Tessie, and most importantly made new hockey memories. Families traveled from all over to be part of the experience. There was one family that stood out, Marco and Cici, who brought their son, Michael all the way from London to grow as an athlete under the Knights' guidance.

“The UK hockey training is so limited," Marco said. "Resources are so limited, so we have to wake up at five in the morning. As a parent, we have to drop him off at the ice rink, and we’ve been doing this for four years.”

Michael’s passion for the sport began when his school's headmaster introduced him to the game. Since then, he’s built confidence, made friends, and immersed himself in the world of hockey. Marco would often catch Michael watching NHL highlights on YouTube.

"He really enjoys the training and has built the confidence while playing on a team which really changed his life," Marco said. "We enjoy watching it.”

After the visit to South Tahoe the VGK crew headed to Reno Ice for another round of sold-out clinics, including an NHL Learn to Play session. The second batch of 150 kids laced up their skates to train with Hudspeth, Hnidy, Chance, Tessie, and Archie, the mascot of the Reno Aces. With support from local coaches, the young athletes participated in drills and scrimmages. The team also donated hockey equipment to support the growth of girls’ hockey in Northern Nevada.

Following the Northern Nevada run the Knights regrouped to head over to Arizona, and although it was a different place the mission remained the same. 

This is how we do it at Ice Den Scottsdale!!!🏒#VGKRoadTrip | @EngosHeroes | @A1GarageDoorspic.twitter.com/v1jYV0mPhF

— Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) July 16, 2025

Former Vegas alternate captain Deryk Engelland joined the team to skate with over 150 young players. With drills and games underway on the ice, off the ice families enjoyed giveaways like trading cards, sunglasses, bracelets, and the 2024–25 VGK Yearbook.

We had so much fun continuing to grow the game in the Phoenix community with a ball hockey clinic at Sunnyslope Community Center🏒#VGKRoadTrip | @VGKFoundation | @LosVGK | @A1GarageDoorspic.twitter.com/1EtiLmkO3e

— Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) July 16, 2025

The Knights Foundation also hosted a ball hockey clinic at Sunnyslope Community Center, where Engelland, D’Uva, and Hudspeth led kids through skills training and answered questions from young fans eager to learn more about the game.

Later, the team headed to Ice Den Scottsdale, where 140 kids took part in three more on-ice clinics. Goucher and D’Uva hosted a Q&A with fans, offering a behind-the-scenes look at life as VGK broadcasters. One lucky attendee even won four tickets to a home game for the upcoming season.

We are rocking and rolling for today’s final on-ice clinics! Sun Devil Hockey (@SunDevilHockey) joined us in all the fun action! 😎🏒#VGKRoadTrip | @A1GarageDoorspic.twitter.com/EcZfZxsxhy

— Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) July 18, 2025

Amongst all the action a Spanish-language ball hockey clinic at the Chicanos Por La Causa Community Center, was hosted by LosVGK. The final stop on the trip brought the team to Mullett Arena, where they were joined by men’s and women’s hockey players from Arizona State University.

Thanks to all the Golden Knights fans who joined us on the 2025 VGK Road Trip!! 😃#VGKRoadTrip | @A1GarageDoorshttps://t.co/n2HNo4nQI3

— Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) July 18, 2025

This year marked the first time Arizona was included in the VGK Road Trip, and it proved successful. During the duration of the 2,127-mile trip more than 700 kids participated, further strengthening the future of hockey.

PHOTO COURTESY: Vegas Golden Knights

For a second year in a row, Alex Newhook held a golf tournament in St. John’s, Newfoundland, and the event included a Q&A with a few special guests. On the stage alongside Newhook were his sister Abby Newhook, who the Boston Fleet of the PWHL recently drafted, Montreal Canadiens teammates Arber Xhekaj, Jakub Dobes, and Jayden Struble, and former Habs Michael Pezzetta and Chris Nilan.

David Amber played the role of master of ceremonies and asked many questions to the players, a few of which are worth reporting. The panel was asked which rule change they would like to see in the league, and Dobes had a surprising answer. The netminder would like to see more goalie fights and laments that the linesmen step in too early to stop them. He refused to say which masked man he would like to fight, however. As for Xhekaj, he explained that he would eliminate the shootout; instead, he prefers continuous overtime. He even mentioned that a shootout, while flashy, ruins the game. Meanwhile, Newhook would do away with the delay-of-game penalty when the puck is thrown over the glass. As for Pezzetta, he would uniformize the high-sticking penalty, doing away with the four-minute infraction when one draws blood.

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It was also interesting to see the answers to the “who should be mic'd up on the ice?” question. Newhook picked Brad Marchand because of the Stanley Cup champion’s antics on the ice, before adding that Cole Caufield would be interesting since he’s loud and all over the place. Struble interjected to say Lane Hutson would be funny, and Xhekaj jumped in to add that the Calder Trophy winner once apologized to a guy who had just received a penalty on him. The gritty defenseman also suggested Juraj Slafkovsky would be interesting since he’s yelling in Slovakian and you can’t even understand what he’s saying half the time.

Another noteworthy question was where the players would like to see expansion teams. Dobes came out of left field with a London, England-based team. Nilan said he wouldn’t want to see Atlanta again before saying Houston is a possibility, and he would like to see Quebec City, but he added that “Mr. Molson wouldn’t like that,” and he’s not sure if they could fill up the building for a whole season.

As always, Nilan found the way to entertain the crowd when he was asked what winning the Stanley Cup in Montreal was like. He explained that winning in that market is special, and given the option to win in Montreal or Anaheim, the choice was obvious. But the big chuckle came when he added, “Even in New Jersey, they had a parade in a parking lot [insert expletive here]”.

That led to him talking about game 3 of the series against the Washington Capitals this season, saying it was the loudest he’d ever seen the building. Asked about that game, which was the first of his career in the playoffs, Dobes mentioned that he was nervous, but it ended up well since they won. While he was talking, you could see something was burning on Arber Xhekaj’s lips, and seconds later, he let it out:

So Dobby stands by the bench, right close to their bench, and he’s looking over and chirping every single guy that comes off the ice, yelling at them, chirping them. Next thing you know, our goalie gets hurt and Dobby has to go in…uh oh.

The young netminder admitted that the story was true and added that the Caps were not nice to him in the first five minutes. Xhekaj then explained that’s how the bench brawl started. At the end of the period, Dobes had to skate through the Caps to get back to the Canadiens’ room, but they all decided to stand there and wait to have a word with him. The tough guy added: “And then I got in there and it was madness”. Pleading his case, the rookie netminder added that he didn’t even say anything that bad.

That night really was special at the Bell Centre last season. It will be interesting to see what the building is like this upcoming season if the Canadiens do make the playoffs for a second year in a row.

Photo credit:  Geoff Burke-Imagn Images

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The Anaheim Ducks have missed the playoffs every year since 2017-18 and in doing so, have drafted in the top ten for seven consecutive seasons and procured one of the NHL’s deepest and most potent prospect pools.

Despite several young players having graduated and become full-time NHLers, such as Leo Carlsson, Cutter Gauthier, Mason McTavish, Pavel Mintyukov, and Olen Zellweger, the Ducks still have an impressive pipeline of potential impact and depth prospects yet to make the jump.

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For this exercise, only players who haven’t lost rookie status are eligible for a ranking, and to be clear, these are my (Patrick Present) subjective rankings.

Honorable Mentions: Yegor Sidorov, Herman Traff, Tarin Smith, Lasse Boelius, Calle Clang

Top Ten:

10. Nathan Gaucher, 21, C, San Diego Gulls (AHL)

9. Ian Moore, 23, RHD, San Diego Gulls (AHL)

8. Sasha Pastujov, 22, W, San Diego Gulls (AHL)

7. Tomas Suchanek, 22, G, San Diego Gulls (AHL)

6. Eric Nilson, 18, C, Michigan State University (NCAA)

5. Lucas Pettersson, 19, C, Brynas IF (SHL)

4. Stian Solberg, 19, LHD, San Diego Gulls (AHL)

3. Tristan Luneau, 21, RHD, San Diego Gulls (AHL)

2. Roger McQueen, 18, C, Brandon Wheat Kings (WHL)

If it were guaranteed that Roger McQueen is currently 100% healthy and will be moving forward, he would have easily sat atop this list of Ducks prospects. However, if that same guarantee could have been made just over a month ago at the NHL Draft, McQueen would have certainly been selected higher than where the Ducks were picking (10th overall in 2025).

“There's certainly power forward written all over him in how he plays the game,” Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek stated after McQueen’s selection. “He has a little bit of a mean side to him, which I like. There's high compete there with him.

“And so I think that when we went through the injuries that he had, I think that we felt comfortable drafting him. Just all the things that he's gone through to overcome the injury, we felt comfortable drafting him.”

McQueen has the makeup of a dominant, elite top-line center in the NHL. He measured in at 6-foot-5.25 and 198 pounds at the NHL Draft combine in early June, and uses every bit of that frame and reach to control play in all three zones.

As of now, his skating is about NHL average, which, given his size, is a tremendous advantage. He has a long, powerful stride and is as fluid on his edges as it gets. He can cover a huge amount of ice incredibly quickly. The only area for improvement in the skating department could be with adding explosion to his first three steps.

He’s immensely gifted with the puck on his stick: his hands are elite, he can operate in tight spaces, he can operate in open ice, he can protect pucks, he threads needles to open teammates in dangerous areas, and his shot is NHL-ready.

McQueen’s defensive attention to detail is surprisingly advanced for someone who’s missed as much time as he has and for someone who is as offensively gifted as he is. He stays well on the defensive side of the puck in coverage and uses his closing ability and active stick to kill plays in low-danger areas before they can develop.

He has every tool necessary to be one of the best players in the NHL in his prime. However, the question marks surrounding his back injury will remain until he can prove he’s fully recovered and unhampered.

McQueen missed all but 17 regular season games in 2024-25 with a fracture in his vertebrae, needing ample rest to properly heal and recover. He returned for three playoff games, but he sustained a muscle injury, reportedly from overcompensation, which ended his draft season.

"I think being off (the ice for so long) really helped me (develop my skills)," McQueen said during his post-draft availability. "I think the other side of the game, the mental side, really got a lot sharper for me in the sense of just having five months off to take that on myself and work on that. I think just being able to stay positive and stay resilient really helped me out. The other side of the game is watching our team play. You learn a lot (by doing that) too.”

Moving forward, the priority for McQueen’s development is to ensure he’s fully healthy and plays as many games as possible in 2025-26. Signs are currently pointing toward him returning to the WHL to play for Brandon, but with the new CHL/NCAA agreement in place, college hockey remains an option, and there’s always the (very) outside chance he makes the Ducks’ NHL roster following rookie and training camps.

McQueen, along with fellow Ducks prospects Beckett Sennecke and Tarin Smith, was invited to Team Canada’s World Junior Summer Showcase, but both he and Sennecke were listed as “unable to attend.”

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Photo Credit: Anaheim Ducks PR