picture: Toronto star
The Stanley Cup Finals are set to begin Saturday night when the Vegas Golden Knights host the Florida Panthers, with both teams looking to lift their first-ever Stanley Cup. [Preview here]. Both entries include one player who previously played for the Washington Capitals. In addition to the players, there are a number of other employees who work with the Stanley Cup Finalists and who were formerly associated with the Capitals.
players
Former Capitals players in the Stanley Cup Finals are defenseman Radko Judas of the Florida Panthers and center Chandler Stephenson of the Las Vegas Knights.
Radko Judas, defenseman, Florida Panthers
God, a Czech national, has played for the Panthers since the 2020-21 season. He is more of a defensive player who plays a physical game rather than a scorer. This season, Judas has played 72 regular season games, scoring two goals and recording 15 assists. He has played 16 playoff games so far this season, and hasn’t scored any goals yet, but has recorded three assists.
Prior to playing with the Panthers, Judas played for the Capitals. Washington acquired him from the Philadelphia Flyers after the 2018-19 season in the trade for Matt Niskanen, but he only played with the Capitals for one season, 2019-20, before Sign with the Panthers as a free agent.
Prior to joining the Capitals, Judas played for the Tampa Bay Lightning and Philadelphia Flyers. Tampa Bay selected him in the third round of the 2008 NHL Entry Draft with the 66th pick overall. He was part of the Norfolk Admirals team during the 2011-12 season that set the winning record for a professional hockey team. By the way, his younger sister Caroline is married to the ex-Capitals goalkeeper, Michal Neuwirth.
Chandler Stephenson, center, Las Vegas Knights
Formatting capitals Stevenson, a native of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, was selected in the third round of the 2012 NHL Entry Draft with the 77th overall pick. He played with the Hershey Bears for several years and made his debut with the Capitals during the 2015-16 season.
Stevenson came to the NHL to stay early in the 2017-18 season when he was part of the Capitals team that won the Stanley Cup. He remained with the Capitals until December 2, 2019, when he was traded to the Las Vegas Knights in exchange for a fifth round draft pick. Due to salary cap reasons, the Capitals were unable to keep him and Travis Boyd, and so he was traded.
Photo: Jason Franson/The Canadian Press via AP
Stevenson thrived after the trade to Las Vegas. Back at the Capitals, while he was generally in the lineup, he didn’t have a set role because he played first line, fourth line, and third line at various times, as well as playing center and wing.
Stephenson ended up with career highs in goals, assists, and points for 2019-20. During 2020-21, he was promoted to the Knights’ top line where he focused on Max Pacioretty and Mark Stone and surpassed his goals and assist highs from the previous season.
Stevenson has improved his point total each year with Vegas. This season, he led all Knights tacklers in the regular season in five minutes on five and five minutes from power play while finishing second in shortstops. He even made his NHL All Star 2023 debut.
During the 2023 postseason, Stephenson scored eight goals and recorded six assists. he He scored the winning goal for the Golden Knights in their 3-2 win in game two Third round series against the Dallas Stars.
People who don’t play
Among the non-playing individuals, the Florida Panthers have no former Capitals personnel either on their coaching staff, on their front office, or on their scouting staff. Just this past season, 2021-22, they named Joel Quenneville and Andrew Brunot as head coaches.
However, the Las Vegas Knights have plenty of former Capitals employees, the most famous being team president George McPhee and head coach Bruce Cassidy.
Hockey Operations President, George McPhee
McPhee was the general manager of the Capitals from 1997-1998, the season the Capitals reached the Stanley Cup Final, through 2013-14. During his tenure in Washington, the team drafted Alex Ovechkin, Niklas Backstrom, John Carlson, Evgeny Kuznetsov, and other stars.
McPhee became the Knights’ first general manager during the summer of 2016. After the 2018-19 season, He relinquished his position as general manager in favor of Brad McCrimmon but retained his position as president of hockey operations..
Benjamin Hager: The Las Vegas Journal
Coach Bruce Cassidy
The Capitals were impressed by Cassidy’s record as a head coach at the AHL level and selected him to be their head coach prior to the 2002-2003 season. This was Cassidy’s first coaching position at the NHL level. but, They fired him in early December 2003 when the Capitals got off to a bad start. After leaving the Capitals, he has coached for several other AHL teams.
The Boston Bruins hired him to be an assistant coach for the 2016-17 season and named him interim head coach midway through that season. He did not return as interim after that season and remained the Bruins head coach until the end of the 2021-22 season. His tenure with the Bruins included appearances in the 2018-19 Stanley Cup Finals and Winning the President’s Cup in 2019-20. After the Bruins released him, the Knights hired Cassidy as their head coach.
AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez
Other employees
Other employees who used to work for the Capitals are Will Nichol who is now the Knights’ Director of Player Development and Vojtech Kucera, who is now the Knights’ Director of European Scouting. McPhee lured both of the Capitals to Las Vegas after the 2015-16 season. Nicol scouted the caps from 2011 through 2016. Kucera scouted the caps from 1999 through 2016.
Another Vegas scout, Jim McKenzie, played 30 games with the Caps in 1999-00 and scored one goal after a trade from the Anaheim Ducks. In addition, Rick Brownstein, Director of Services for the Knights, worked for public relations for the Capitals and was one of the lead authors of their 1995-1996 media guide.
Staff directory of the Las Vegas Knights
Written by Diane Doyle