426 percent.
That’s how much youth hockey participation in Nevada has increased since the arrival of the Vegas Golden Knights. Darren Eliot, Vice President of Hockey Programming and Facility Operations, has directed much of that growth in the five years he has been with the organization.
That investment has already paid off for many of the sport’s young players. Four teams based in the Vegas Valley – the 16U VJGK boys, 14U VJGK girls, 14U VJGK boys, and Faith Lutheran High School team – brought home a championship banner over the past two seasons.
“It was very rewarding for the players, their parents, the coaches, just everybody involved,” Eliot said of the teams’ victories. “To have three championships in the same season was unbelievable, and it was a great story with Gordie Mark, a former NHL player, coaching them. Championships are how people measure [success].”
“I have a little different view of it, though. You enjoy them, you embrace them, you’re happy for everybody involved. But we’re trying to build hockey players and hockey fans for life. So equally important to me is the growth of our house league. We have 1,200 kids playing in the league. When we got here as a franchise, there were 92 players in that league. I said, ‘that’s not a league, that’s a division.’ So we set out to fix that.”
The active involvement of the Knights organization (not merely the presence) is central to that growth. Golden Knights and Silver Knights players attend local ball hockey and learn-to-play clinics in the Vegas area; some travel further north to attend similar events in Reno on the Golden Knights’ road trip. HSK players donned Jr. Golden Knights and Faith Lutheran jerseys on Nevada Day and ahead of their respective championships in 2023-24. Vegas-born forward Gage Quinney and defenseman Lukas Cormier recorded congratulatory messages for the 14U girls on their Nationals victory.
The support that these youth players feel from the players they most look up to has been tremendously valuable in both growing and sustaining their participation.
“The success and popularity of the Knights drives everything,” Eliot said. “Our job has been to facilitate. The dream if you’re a kid is the Vegas Golden Knights. The reality is that the closer you see somebody that’s closer to you succeeding, the more kids can relate to them. What Gage was able to do was incredible. I think it’s so important that Gage is still in the local…
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