Knights prospects motivated by seeing Stanley Cup up close

Several of the Golden Knights’ top prospects — such as forwards Brendan Brisson and Pavel Dorofeyev, defensemen Lukas Cormier and Kaedan Korczak and goaltender Isaiah Saville — witnessed the team’s Stanley Cup championship up close.

They got to go on the ice after the Knights’ Game 5 win against the Florida Panthers still in their suits. They took part in the locker room celebration. They even got their own float in the team’s championship parade down the Strip.

It was an incredible experience for all of them. It also gave them a goal they shared with Knights director of player development Wil Nichol.

“They said, ‘We’re going to do this with the uniforms on,’” Nichol said.

Being that close to the Cup was ample motivation for several of those players as they seek to take the next step in their careers. For Brisson, Cormier and Saville, that starts at Knights development camp this week as they try to show how much their games have grown.

“Just to be around, seeing them celebrate, makes me want to hold the Cup even more,” Brisson said. “I know the guys that were around it probably would say the same thing. I think it was really big for my development.”

Brisson, Cormier, Dorofeyev, Korczak and Saville didn’t appear in the playoffs, but they were around the whole time taking it all in.

They were part of the Knights’ taxi squad — or “black aces” — that kept practicing during the playoffs in case they were needed in an emergency. They went to games at T-Mobile Arena, and observed the kind of commitment and sacrifice that’s necessary to make a deep run.

“(I learned) just how hard it is to win,” Cormier said. “We already know it’s not easy, but just seeing what they went through. A lot of adversity, but they pushed through it.”

The group also got a taste for what a championship party is like.

They put on goggles in T-Mobile Arena like the rest of the Knights players as beer and champagne went spraying everywhere. They also saw the support that came from the city riding down Las Vegas Boulevard with Silver Knights assistants Fred Brathwaite, Jamie Heward and Joel Ward.

Brisson did say it was “a little weird” at times because he didn’t want to overstep his bounds, but he had a lot of fun.

“Just being there, I try to learn as much as you can without getting too involved, just watching from afar and being there and just being happy for those guys,” Brisson said. “I played with a lot of those guys, too. I was really excited. It’s great for the city, great for the organization and all the guys that got to live it every day.”

The group will try to use that championship euphoria as fuel the rest of the season.

Brisson, Cormier and Saville are three of the leaders at development camp, which runs through Thursday at City National Arena, given they’re coming off their first full season in pro hockey. Dorofeyev and Korczak have graduated after spending 18 and 10 games in the NHL last season, respectively.

They’re all hoping to take the next step to show they can be part of the next Knights team to lift the Cup. Now that they’ve seen it happen in front of their own eyes, it’s something they want for themselves that much more.

”It’s incredible for them to see it,” Nichol said. “That’s a great piece for their development, to have been here, to see it live, and that was great for them to be on the ice, too, with (Heward) and (Ward), (Brathwaite) and all those guys to get a real good jump-start on their summer.”

Contact Ben Gotz at bgotz@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BenSGotz on Twitter.