SIMMONS SAYS: Vegas GM Kelly McCrimmon is ruthless, but successful

Without Marner, Hart, Andersson and Tortorella, the Golden Knights would be nowhere near another Stanley Cup final.

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Published May 24, 2026  •  Last updated 19 minutes ago  •  9 minute read

General Manger Kelly McCrimmon of the Vegas Golden Knights lifts the Stanley Cup after his team defeated the Florida Panthers on June 13, 2023. Photo by Bruce Bennett /Getty Images

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Kelly McCrimmon was not named a finalist for the Jim Gregory Award as general manager of the year in the NHL, not this year, not any year.

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And that is rather ridiculous.

McCrimmon’s ruthless pursuit of victory with the Vegas Golden Knights has not always been appreciated in his business and around the NHL, but his success is evident once again in these Stanley Cup playoffs.

The best player in this post-season — Mitch Marner — was all but grabbed from the Maple Leafs in what was essentially a sign-and-trade deal for a bottom-of-the-roster centreman.

The best goaltender in the playoffs through three rounds has been Carter Hart, who most NHL teams wanted nothing to do with because of his association with the sexual assault junior hockey trial in London, Ont.

The best defenceman available around the trade deadline was Rasmus Andersson of the Calgary Flames. McCrimmon and Vegas dealt for him.

And with eight games to go in the season, McCrimmon shockingly let Stanley Cup-winning coach Bruce Cassidy go and replaced him with the colourful veteran John Tortorella.

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Now, without Marner, Hart, Andersson and Tortorella, the Golden Knights would be nowhere near another Stanley Cup final. Now they’re two wins away, because they do business differently than just about everyone else in the game. They do it mean and relentless and fans who care mostly about winning couldn’t ask for anything more.

Former Vegas Golden Knights head coach Bruce Cassidy. Photo by Ethan Miller /Getty Images

THIS AND THAT

Cale Makar is a top-five hockey player in the world. If he doesn’t come back in the playoffs, neither will the Stanley Cup favourite, the Colorado Avalanche. Makar controls the pace of every game in which he plays: Colorado is a completely different team without him … If Marner had played the way he’s playing now in Vegas, he still would be a Leaf … Still don’t understand what the Golden Knights are doing with the fired Cassidy. How is it possibly a distraction for Vegas playing playoff games if Cassidy is job-searching, which all fired coaches should be entitled to do. What does one have to do with the other? I still figure Cassidy winds up coaching the Edmonton Oilers, but the process is just taking longer than anticipated … Cassidy reminds me of Pat Burns. Five-year contract, three-year act. Burns took Montreal to the Stanley Cup final, took the Maple Leafs to the conference final two years in a row and won a Stanley Cup in New Jersey. Burns lasted four years in Montreal, was fired in his fourth year in Toronto and fourth year in Boston, and spent two years in Jersey before getting sick … There are possibly five coaching openings right now in the NHL — Toronto, Los Angeles, Edmonton, Vancouver and maybe Nashville. Until the Predators have a general manager, it’s hard to know who will be coaching them … Think of yourself and then think of Leafs GM John Chayka. He was an NHL GM at 26, broke a bunch of rules, got suspended and was out by the age of 31. Now he’s 36 and starting over with the Leafs. Weren’t you a lot wiser at 36 than you were at 26, more mature, more adjusted? The Leafs have to be really hoping that’s the case with Chayka … At 26, I was single, without children, occasionally careless, trying to figure out my future. At 36, I was married, with two children, a mortgage, aging parents, more settled, more mature … I was in Montreal for the Stanley Cup final of 1986 and 1993, the two most recent Habitant championship seasons. And the scene back then was nothing like it is now at the Bell Centre. This is those Montreal seasons on steroids. The ’93 Habs were fortunate to win the Stanley Cup, mostly because of Patrick Roy’s overtime brilliance. He won 10 of 11 OT games for coach Jacques Demers. That was a good team, not a great team. The ’86 Habs might be among the worst teams to ever win a Cup. It was Roy’s rookie season. They had a rookie coach in Jean Perron, one big scorer in Mats Naslund and, as a team, finished the season with 87 points. They did have an aging Larry Robinson, a young Chris Chelios, Rick Green and Craig Ludwig on defence. But Roy was the difference-maker, just as he was seven years later … It’s hard to think about the ’93 Canadiens without thinking of coach Demers, one of the truly delightful figures in hockey history … The current Habs team is unlike any we’ve seen in decades: They’re mostly kids, with Cole Caufield, Lane Hutson, Juraj Slafkovksy and Kaiden Guhle, all signed until at least 2031 for reasonable figures. Nick Suzuki, slightly older, is signed until 2030. Ivan Demidov and Jakub Dobes are just coming off their rookie contracts. Barring unforeseen circumstances, Montreal should be a Cup contender for at least the next five years. The highest salary is paid to defenceman Hutson at $8.8 million a year, which is almost $4 million less than the Maple Leafs are paying their second highest paid player, William Nylander.

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Vladimir Guerrero Jr. of the Toronto Blue Jays hits a sacrifice fly during a game against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium on May 20, 2026. Photo by Sarah Stier /Getty Images

HEAR AND THERE

How dreadful a first third of the season has this been for Vladimir Guerrero Jr.? Heading into Saturday afternoon and Paul Skenes at the Rogers Centre, he had one extra-base hit in the Blue Jays’ past 22 games. In the same time, Pete Alonso has 13 for the Baltimore Orioles, Nick Kurtz has 12 for the Athletics, Ben Rice has 10 for the Yankees and even Josh Naylor, off to a terrible start himself in Seattle, has six. Over the same period, Ernie Clement has eight extra-base hits for the Jays and the rookie callup, Yohendrick Pinango, has four. Pinango has that natural confident-hitter look about him, doesn’t he? … Other Jays with more extra base hits than Guerrero: Daulton Varsho, Jesus Sanchez, Kaz Okamoto and Andres Gimenez … Bo Bichette looks like he’s finally finding his way with the Mets. He’s hitting .318 with three homers, nine RBIs and five runs scored in New York’s past five games … It won’t take much more than a .500 record to make the playoffs in the American League. Which means, the Jays remain a team you don’t want to face come playoff time: Nobody is going to want to face a rotation with Trey Yesavage, Dylan Cease and Kevin Gausman — you pick the order — come playoffs. Now all the Jays have to do over the next 110 games is get there … Jays are playing .576 baseball when Yesavage, Cease or Gausman start games: When anyone else starts, they’re playing .360 ball … With all of their apparent medical expertise, how did it take eight months for the Blue Jays to determine that Jose Berrios needed Tommy John surgery? Which basically means that Berrios will be paid $43 million for this year and next year to not pitch for the Jays? Insurance pays for that, but it remains a waste of salary budgeted for. It was the same thought process with outfielder Anthony Santander, who essentially lost this season by having surgery way too late. The Blue Jays have to be seriously asking: With Berrios, with Santander, with Shane Bieber, who is making their medical decisions?

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Former Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Eric Lauer. Photo by Julio Aguilar /Getty Images

SCENE AND HEARD

If you remove the uncharacteristic first start of this season, when Skenes lasted two-thirds of an inning and gave up five runs, the Pittsburgh ace had an earned run average of 1.82 through his nine other starts. Against the Jays on Saturday afternoon, Skenes did not look too legendary. To quote Randy Carlyle, he looked just OK … The history of Buffalo sports calamities: 1. Wide right; 2. Foot in crease; 3. Music City Miracle; 4. Quick whistle … If there is such a thing as a semi-closer, Louis Varland is the most valuable player on the Jays roster this season? … Eric Lauer had every reason to be upset with the Jays. They wouldn’t have won the American League East without him last season and they hardly acknowledged that. He was dropped from the rotation in August and was barely used, or on playoff rosters, in the post-season. He then lost an arbitration case at a low dollar figure in the off-season. And that was before the problems with manager John Schneider, who not many have problems with. Lauer deserved better than the Blue Jays treated him before dealing him to Los Angeles … Keith Pelley likes to tell you he has rebuilt Toronto FC and is proud of the new club. Might be true but last I checked, TFC was 10th in the Eastern Conference of Major League Soccer, 21st in the league, with three wins in 13 games … The CFL has become the land of the old quarterback. Zach Collaros, Bo Levi Mitchell and Trevor Harris, with eight Grey Cups between them, are all beginning their 14th CFL season … Alex Tuch, one of the prominent free agents of summer, sure had a disappointing series against Montreal. Tuch had seven points in six games against the Bruins in the first round and nothing — zero goals, zero assists — in the seven games for the Sabres against Montreal … The new rules of baseball are engaging: The ball/strike challenges are fun. The instant-replay challenges are fascinating, especially when they get the call right. And I like the pitch clock. The only rule I don’t care for is the one that has relief pitchers having to face three batters. That one kind of toys with me with the history of managing a game. You want a lefty versus a lefty, a right versus a righty in late inning circumstances. You don’t want to have to count to three while doing so.

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Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spurs dunks the ball against Chet Holmgren (left) and Jalen Williams of the Oklahoma City Thunder during Game 1 of the NBA Western Conference Finals at Paycom Center on May 18, 2026 in Oklahoma City. Photo by Joshua Gateley /Getty Images

AND ANOTHER THING

Not getting enough notice from NHL teams looking for coaches: Michigan State’s Adam Nightingale. He’s deserving of an NHL look … Sports on television doesn’t get better than it was last Monday night. Game 7, overtime, Montreal-Buffalo; Jays vs. Yankees, final score 7-6; Game 1 of the NBA’s Western Conference final, San Antonio giant Victor Wembanyama scoring 41 points with 24 rebounds in a double overtime win over Oklahoma City Thunder. And you wonder why I don’t sleep at night … There are no shortage of downtown Toronto hotel rooms available during the World Cup of Soccer, which is a little surprising. What’s not surprising that the decent hotel rooms available are very high priced. Also high, the cost to park around BMO Field for games. The usual $25 lot you pay for Argos parking will sell for $75 during the World Cup courtesy of our friends at FIFA … Scottie Barnes did not make the first-team all-Defence roster in the NBA, which he should have made. Just ask the Cleveland Cavaliers … The best thing about the Toronto Tempo: They don’t look like an expansion team. There are not a lot of John Salley or Zan Tabak types on the Tempo. Eleven-year vet Brittney Sykes, on her fifth team, is fifth in scoring in the WNBA, scoring almost twice as much as her career average. She’s one bucket a game behind Caitlin Clark. And she’s sixth in the league in steals … When Sheldon Keefe goes behind the bench in New Jersey in October, he will be coaching for his fourth general manager in the past five seasons … You know playoff hockey is getting surprising coverage in the U.S. when media giants such as Jim Rome and Pat McAfee, who normally ignore hockey, are bringing on NHL guests for their afternoon programs … Happy birthday to Gary Roberts (60), Tracy McGrady (47), Sandro Mamukelashvili (27), Kris Draper (55), Pat Verbeek (62), Norm Powell (33), Reggie Cleveland (78), Roman Reigns (41), Buck Showalter (70), Aaron Donald (35), Bartolo Colon (53) and Bob Dylan (85) … And hey, whatever became of Dustin Byfuglien?

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