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Vegas owner hopes to have new GM by beginning of August

2016 NHL Awards - Board Of Governors Press Conference

LAS VEGAS, NV - JUNE 22: New Las Vegas NHL franchise owner Bill Foley and commissioner Gary Bettman of the National Hockey League pose for a photo during the Board of Governors Press Conference prior to the 2016 NHL Awards at Encore Las Vegas on June 22, 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The NHL’s board of governors approved expanding to Las Vegas, making the franchise the 31st team in the league. The team will start play during the 2017-18 season and play at the newly built T-Mobile Arena. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

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Work has started on the next step in building the Las Vegas NHL franchise, including securing a front office and hockey operations staff.

As per Steve Carp of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Owner Bill Foley and his staff are off to Montana to meet and discuss different issues. But putting together a list of candidates for the general manager position is probably the most pressing, with the expansion draft less than a year away.

It’s possible the successful candidate could be found by the beginning of next month, and Foley told the publication he hopes to have a shortlist of three to five candidates for upcoming interviews.

“My hope is we’ll have our general manager on board no later than Aug. 1,” said Foley, as per the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

“We’ve had a lot of people reach out to us, and we’ve got some people we’re interested in who we’ve yet to speak to. We hope to identify who we want to speak to from these meetings.”

Even though the expansion draft may seem like its far away, teams have already started the process of figuring out which players they may want to protect.

The Anaheim Ducks traded goalie Frederik Andersen last month, and GM Bob Murray added that with the expansion draft, it would’ve ultimately been impossible to keep both Andersen and John Gibson.

With teams already preparing for the expansion draft, Vegas must quickly build a staff in order to keep up. Hence the importance of finding a GM.

“We’re going to have a lot of interviews to do, a lot of flying in and out (of Las Vegas). We want to make sure we hire the right person. I’m not worried about who the coach is going to be right now. The coach can happen next April, after the season. If someone gets fired before the season ends, we can maybe look at that person,” Foley said last month.

“But the window is now for the GM and the scouts. That’s where our focus is.”