Las Vegas’ hockey boom continues with 1st draft pick: ‘It feels special’

There were thousands of people in front of T-Mobile Arena to watch the NHL’s 31st team unveil its name Nov. 22, 2016.

Austin Moline, then 11 years old, was one of them. He was excited to see his hometown of Las Vegas take the next step to become a professional sports city.

“It had been a long time coming,” Moline said.

It wasn’t the only memorable night he would spend at the rink. Moline was inside T-Mobile Arena for the Golden Knights’ first-ever home game Oct. 10, 2017. He began his hockey journey that same year after his mother and father signed him up for the Jr. Golden Knights program.

He made history of his own seven years later. Moline became the first Las Vegas native to be selected in the NHL draft when the Philadelphia Flyers took him in the seventh round with the 205th overall pick June 29 at Sphere.

He wasn’t even planning on attending the draft until a team — not the Flyers — told him he should be there.

“It couldn’t have worked out any better,” Moline said.

Moline’s milestone encapsulates how far Southern Nevada youth hockey has come in a short amount of time. He spent two years in the Jr. Golden Knights program before playing for the Los Angeles Jr. Kings in 2019-20.

He then moved to Minnesota to continue his development. But when he visited home, he saw more people playing hockey than ever before.

“I started to notice there were hundreds of little kids that signed up,” Moline said. “That wasn’t something I had when I was growing up.”

Moline’s eyes weren’t lying to him. Las Vegas’ youth hockey scene has exploded in recent years.

There were 539 players ages 18 and under registered in Nevada in 2016-17, the year before the Knights’ first season, according to USA Hockey. There were 2,974 players registered in 2023-24.

“It’s great to see all these kids getting on the ice,” Moline said.

National champions

Gordie Mark loved coaching softball. It was the perfect transition for him following a 12-year hockey career that included stints with the Edmonton Oilers and New Jersey Devils.

He coached the Lil Rebels softball team for 15 years, even after his daughter Sierra left to play collegiately at Oregon State in 2017. But Mark started to get pestered by his good friend Wally Lacroix about coaching youth hockey instead.

Mark made the jump in 2023, taking over the 14U Girls Jr. Knights team. He would have switched over years ago if he knew how things would go.

Mark led the team to a 16-0-0 record in the Pacific Girls Hockey League and earned the No. 1 seed in the playoffs. The group dominated in the national tournament, outscoring opponents 13-4 in six games to win the USA Hockey Tier II national championship April 7.

“Kids worked so hard trying to improve and getting to the point where we had a chance to even go to nationals,” Mark said.

He was filled with pride afterwards. He was told in September there were “four or five” teams that were “substantially better” than his.

“I guess we showed them,” Mark said.

The team’s success is part of a girls hockey boom in Nevada.

There were just 33 registered girls players between the ages of 7 and 14 in the state in 2016-17, according to USA Hockey. Most had to play in boys leagues.

There were 273 registered girls players in that age group last season. Mark said the Knights’ NHL success — they’ve made the playoffs in six of their seven seasons and won the Stanley Cup in 2023 — has piqued interest in the sport.

“I’m hopeful it’ll increase the enrollment here in town,” Mark said. “Having the Knights doing what they’re doing, it brings a lot of exposure to the sport for everybody.”

Mark made a brief stop in Las Vegas as a professional, playing for the Thunder in the International Hockey League in 1995-96. The team had a following, but never got kids into hockey like the Knights, he said.

He marvels at what’s happening in Las Vegas almost 30 years later.

“Everybody loves a winner,” Mark said. “Their involvement in the community, it’s been a win for the city having the team here and what the players have done within the city to be a part of it.”

The future

The Knights hope the growth of youth hockey in Southern Nevada doesn’t stop anytime soon.

The team plans to do its part to keep the sport thriving. President Kerry Bubolz told the Review-Journal in June the Knights want to break ground on a new facility in West Henderson at some point this year, adding to its rinks at City National Arena and America First Center.

The Knights believe the two new ice sheets — bringing their total to six — will help prevent overcrowding at their existing buildings and let more kids give hockey a shot.

If they do, the team can create even more fans.

“From an organizational standpoint, where I am, we’re trying to develop fans for life,” said Knights broadcaster Darren Eliot, also the team’s senior vice president of hockey programming and facility operations. “Some may aspire for bigger heights. That’s fantastic. We’ll say we’re proud. Really, it’s trying to facilitate a base for fans for the Golden Knights for the future.”

Eliot credited the Knights’ “Learn to Skate” program for getting young players involved with the sport. Carolyn Mortenson, the team’s senior director of skating programs, has approximately 1,000 kids registered right now.

Kids who go through the program can learn basic skills and then decide whether they want to become a figure skater or go through the team’s learn-to-play courses for hockey.

“You need to have that entry-level point of having thousands of kids getting on the ice to learn to skate before you can get to hockey,” Eliot said. “Nothing worse than kids being rushed into playing hockey and getting frustrated because they can’t skate well enough yet to chase the puck around.”

The Knights have also relied on former players with Las Vegas ties, like Mark, to generate interest.

Adam Miller is one of those. Miller played for the ECHL’s Las Vegas Wranglers from 2008-12 and now coaches the 9U Boys Jr. Knights team and Faith Lutheran’s boys hockey team.

“You’ve got hockey-minded guys running the programs around here,” Miller said. “It’s been great, and the reaction from the families and how we do things here, I think, helps.”

All those kids learning hockey through the Knights now can aspire to be the next Moline. He’ll always be remembered as the first drafted player from Las Vegas.

He feels he won’t be the last.

“It feels special being the first one,” Moline said, “but I’m sure in the next five, 10 years there’s going to be a bunch of great players coming out from here.”

Contact Danny Webster at dwebster@reviewjournal.com. Follow @DannyWebster21 on X.