For Canadian-born ice hockey executive George McPhee, Martha’s Vineyard offers a much-needed respite after a busy National Hockey League (NHL) season. The former forward, who once played for the New York Rangers and the New Jersey Devils, currently serves as the president of hockey operations for the Vegas Golden Knights, traveling around the United States and Canada during the regular season. But come summer, McPhee and his family can be found at their West Chop home enjoying the serenity that the Vineyard has offered them for the past twenty-five years.
At the start of the 2024–2025 NHL season, McPhee connected with Martha’s Vineyard Magazine to talk about his long-standing hockey career, why he took a break from the sport to pursue law school, and what it was like to (finally) win that big, shiny Stanley Cup everyone talks about. An edited transcript follows.
Martha’s Vineyard Magazine: You grew up in Canada, which is considered the birthplace of ice hockey. When did you first lace up your skates and why?
George McPhee: Well, it’s what kids did in those days. We played hockey all winter long, and in the spring we played floor hockey. In the summers we played baseball or soccer. I just did what everyone else in the neighborhood was doing...I got to the NHL because I just kept going. Most of my friends had quit somewhere along the way. I’m not sure I was the best player even in our neighborhood. I just kept playing.
MVM: You played for seven years in the NHL, in fact, before shifting to a management role. What has it been like to hold these different roles and which is your favorite?
GM: There’s nothing like playing, and I played the game for the same reason most people play hockey: it’s fun. We have to remind ourselves of that sometimes – hockey is a game five-year-olds play for fun. I really enjoyed playing in the NHL; it was a tremendous league then and an even better league now. We attract the best talent from all over the world.
Management has been really rewarding and a fantastic education. We are always, always learning something new in this business. I think I’m in my thirty-second or thirty-third year of management and I continue to learn things all the time. That’s why I find it really stimulating.
MVM: As a player in the ’80s, you interned on Wall Street during two off-seasons. You also studied law at Rutgers University in New Jersey and clerked for a judge on the U.S. Court of International Trade. How did those jobs influence your management style in the NHL?
GM: I don’t know if the jobs influenced my management style as much as law school did. I found law school a real challenge. I love the precision of the law and the way in which you have to write and read. It’s helped me perform as a manager in hiring the right people and understanding how bright some of these young people are and what a difference they can make in your organization.
MVM: Following an incredible inaugural season in 2017–2018 with the Vegas Golden Knights, you won the Jim Gregory General Manager of the Year Award. Can you tell me about how that recognition felt?
GM: It is certainly an honor, but not as much as you would think, because it’s an individual award. Team accomplishments are much more appealing to most of us. So, while I’m honored and flattered, I would much rather deliver a championship to a city and have everyone share in it than an individual award.
MVM: Speaking of team accomplishments: in 2023, after more than forty years in professional hockey, you became a Stanley Cup champion. How did it feel to finally hoist hockey’s ultimate trophy?
GM: It was much different than I anticipated. I will never look at the Stanley Cup in the same way again. I had the cup for about an hour and a half with just our family. It was a very emotional time for
all of us.
I also got to take it to my hometown in Canada, and the love that the cup has – it was surprising. It brings together your family, your extended family, all your old friends. There aren’t many things that bring together that group of people for you other than a funeral. I remember driving away the next day and I had these weird pains. I realized, for the first time, I was homesick. I missed my friends and family and that town.
MVM: You even brought the Stanley Cup to the Island. Tell me more about how a famous object travels to the Vineyard.
GM: The league has five people that are always with the cup – the cup handlers – and they go all over the world with it. It’s a really neat tradition in our business that all the players and staff on the winning team get to have the cup for a day or half a day.
We have players in Sweden and Russia and the Czech Republic, and all over the United States and Canada, so it’s a big day when the cup comes to your town.
When it came to West Chop, there was a gathering of people and they talked about the history of the cup and lots of folks got their picture taken with it. We [own a house in Vineyard Haven and] belong to the West Chop Club, so they had it in their [meeting hall] and then took it out on the lawn.
MVM: When and why did you start coming to the Vineyard?
GM: My wife, Leah, came to the Island as a youngster. Years later, an old cabin that the family owned had run its course and was replaced by a newer home. We’ve been spending summers on the Vineyard for twenty-five years.
We continue to come to the Island because of the simple pleasures that it provides, whether it’s bike riding or jumping in the ocean or doing whatever you can do on the Island – there’s something for everyone. Personally, I’ve found the serenity and the beauty and the pace of life…is quite a contrast to the hard-charging demands of professional hockey. We are all drawn to the competition, but there’s a time when one has to unwind, and the Vineyard is the perfect place for that….
I love going up to the pier at West Chop and jumping in for a cold plunge. It’s interesting, I’ve watched an entire generation of folks walk to that pier and take their plunge and they seem to live forever. And now, twenty-five years later, I see pro athletes do ice baths as part of their recovery as if it’s something new (laughs).
MVM: You told Sports Illustrated that when you’re on Martha’s Vineyard it’s not like you “go to the beach all day.” You also enjoy attending lectures. What’s been your favorite talk that you’ve attended?
GM: Every Wednesday at the West Chop Club they have what they call “Windows on the World” [a lecture series]. There was one time when someone from Woods Hole [Oceanographic Institution] came in and talked about marine robotics. One other I really liked was the discussion on the biophilia hypothesis, the human need to be connected to nature and other species.
I think we all feel better within days when we arrive on the Island, and it seems to get better with each day. I’ve often found returning to city life is a tough adjustment after being on the Island for five or six weeks in the summer.
We work a day shift and a night shift and on weekends and holidays. There are also big events at the end of the season, like the draft, season contracts, arbitrations. So, I am typically exhausted when I arrive on the Island. By the end of five weeks, you feel terrific. But then you head back and have to do it all over again.
I don’t know how soon I will retire. Typically in our business it’s not your choice. But when that does happen, the plan is to spend a lot more time on the Vineyard and perhaps be year-rounders.
MVM: The 2024–2025 NHL season is in full swing. What is your work schedule like?
GM: Well, there isn’t a lot of downtime in these jobs. The downtime comes mid-July to August, and that’s when I get to the Vineyard. The rest of the year is work, and half of the season is traveling…. You get home at two or three in the morning and you’re back in the office at 6:30 a.m. and then you’re back at night. It’s a tremendous amount of work.
MVM: Do you have any predictions?
GM: I don’t...I’m usually excited when we come to training camp in September and nervous a month later in October when the season begins. You don’t know what will unfold and you’ve made the best decisions during the summer, but you just don’t know from one year to the next what to expect.
Three years ago, we missed the playoffs, and the very next year we won the Stanley Cup. Those are the extremes. It’s never easy. It’s a real challenge and you have to grind it out.
My hope every season is that we can get to the playoffs, because in this league…if you can get into the playoffs then it’s a better opportunity to win it all.
