When people think about hometown kids growing up and playing for their hometown NHL teams, the first cities that come to mind are places like Toronto, Boston, Vancouver, and so on. Places that are regarded as hockey hubs.
One place that probably doesn't come to mind is Las Vegas, Nevada. While Vegas has proved it punches way above its weight class as a hockey-crazed city, tonight, the Golden Knights will have a player on the ice who's ACTUALLY Vegas born.
Gage Quinney will make his NHL debut tonight against the Florida Panthers, and with that, the Las Vegas become the first ever Nevada born player to play in the NHL.
Prior to his debut, Golden Knights' GM Kelly McCrimmon sung Quinney's praises, emphasizing how special it must be for his family and him personally.
Quinney himself shared his excitement, but admitted it hadn't really sunk in.
In official Golden Knights fashion, the team's fantastic Twitter account has given Quinney very Vegas-themed emoji - dice!
Talk about Vegas born, hey?
