Who will coach the NHL’s Las Vegas expansion team?

The NHL’s newborn Las Vegas franchise has taken its first steps.

It has a general manager in George McPhee, who has built out a staff of experienced faces and some outside-the-box choices. It has a season-ticket base that’s selected its seats for the inaugural season in 2017-18. Soon, it will (finally) have a name and color scheme, so those fans can purchase merchandise.

But in early 2017, it will take one of its most important steps on the journey: The selection of its first head coach and his staff.

“Obviously we’ve talked about it,” McPhee told Yahoo Sports this week.

[ Join a Yahoo Daily Fantasy Hockey contest now]

McPhee said he and assistant GM Kelly McCrimmon are keeping independent lists, which will be compared and combined when Vegas is closer to selecting a coach.

“The first 60 days was putting a scouting staff together. We got that done, and we’re rolling out our scouting software. So now it’s focusing on some other things we have to do, like media relations and public relations and clubhouse staff. In the new year, we start focusing on coaches,” said McPhee.

He said the target is the spring, but didn’t say what part of the spring. Would McPhee and his staff wait to see which NHL coaches might be fired after the regular season before hiring one? “That’s hard to say,” he said. “Sometime in the spring would be the best time [to hire someone], probably.”

The most recent rounds of expansion have seen a variety of head coaches hired in Year One.

* The Columbus Blue Jackets went with NHL experience, hiring Dave King as their first head coach in 2000. He previously coached the Calgary Flames from 1992-95. He lasted two and a half seasons in Columbus.

* The Minnesota Wild famously went with Jacques Lemaire, who won a Stanley Cup with the New Jersey Devils and had coached that team from 1993-98 (and the Canadiens from 1983-85). He lasted eight seasons with the Wild, who entered the league in 2000.

* The Nashville Predators found even greater success in Barry Trotz, who had five years of AHL head coaching experience before being hired in 1998. He lasted 15 seasons, including seven playoff appearances.

* The late, not-all-that-great Atlanta Thrashers opted for former NHL winger Curt Fraser, who had six years of head coaching experience in the IHL. He coached them through three and a half seasons before being fired in 2002-03. He’s an assistant coach with the Dallas Stars.

In which direction will Vegas go?

McPhee never hired a head coach with NHL experience in his previous gig in Washington, but Las Vegas is a different situation than the Capitals were, on several fronts. McPhee said hiring a coach with NHL experience is very much an option for Las Vegas.

“In many positions, you’re better the second time around. We value experience. We just don’t know where this is going to end up. If there’s a terrific up and comer, he’ll certainly be a candidate. But in most of the hiring we’ve done here, it’s been experienced people.”

Of course, most of the hiring they’ve done in Vegas has been people with whom upper management has previous experience.

Murray Craven, Vegas owner Bill Foley’s top advisor on hockey matters, pushed for McPhee to be hired; the two had a relationship going back to 1993 when McPhee was in the Vancouver Canucks’ front office and Craven was a player.

McPhee has hired several people that were part of his Washington Capitals hockey operations team, including former goalie coach Dave Prior.

There’s already speculation that connections to management could vault certain coaches to the front of the line. Like Travis Green’s WHL experience with Kelly McCrimmon, for example. Craven has played with any number of guys who fit that “second chance” template: Kevin Dineen, Craig Berube, John Stevens and Tony Granato among them.

And while we don’t expect Adam Oates or Dale Hunter to get a sniff of the Vegas job — although for entertainment’s sake, we wish Ron Wilson would be considered — McPhee has his own connections to former players (Joe Sacco) and coaches (Bruce Cassidy) looking for their encore.

(Not that anyone is looking to rewrite history, but would McPhee revisit Cassidy 13 years after his firing, now that he’s a respected talent developing coach for the Boston Bruins rather than a total novice when the Capitals’ hired him?)

How important is a previous working relationship in hiring a new coach?

“That doesn’t hurt,” said McPhee. “But it won’t be a determining factor in the coaching decision.”

McPhee believes Las Vegas can cast a wide net for coaching candidates, perhaps larger than previous expansion teams. He sees the market as a desirable one from a quality of life standpoint – especially in cost of living. He sees the ownership and management in place as a draw, as well. The way the expansion draft is gamed on favor of Las Vegas being competitive early can’t hurt, either.

In Las Vegas, you don’t have all night to look at your cards. Eventually, the dealer is going to demand that you play your hand.

For Las Vegas’s hockey team, they have plenty of time before making this franchise-defining decision. And they’re in no rush to make sure that their first coach is the right coach.

“When you’ve got time, you use it,” said McPhee.

—

Greg Wyshynski is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter. His book, TAKE YOUR EYE OFF THE PUCK, is available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.

MORE FROM YAHOO SPORTS