{"id":575850,"date":"2026-05-15T21:48:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T21:48:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/575850\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T21:48:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T21:48:16","slug":"golden-knights-forfeit-2026-nhl-draft-pick-after-declining-to-speak-to-media-following-game-6-win-vs-ducks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/575850\/","title":{"rendered":"Golden Knights forfeit 2026 NHL draft pick after declining to speak to media following Game 6 win vs. Ducks"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Vegas Golden Knights<\/a> didn\u2019t follow the league\u2019s protocol after advancing to the Western Conference Finals \u2014 and it\u2019s going to cost them. In a press release<\/a> on Friday, the NHL announced that the Golden Knights would be forfeiting a 2026 second-round draft pick, citing \u201cflagrant violations\u201d of the league\u2019s rules on postgame media.<\/p>\n

The move comes after most of Vegas declined to speak to media following the team\u2019s Game 6 win over the Anaheim Ducks<\/a> on Thursday. The Golden Knights defeated the Ducks 5-1 to complete the 4-2 series win and advance to the next round.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Vegas reportedly did not open the dressing room to media after the game, and only had a few players speak to reporters in a side room or at the podium, via The Athletic\u2019s Jesse Granger<\/a>. Head coach John Tortorella did not make himself available to media after the game, including a typical postgame press conference, and also did not join the handshake line, per The Sporting Tribune\u2019s Zach Cavanagh<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That behavior led the NHL to step in by taking away a draft pick, an unusually steep punishment for a policy violation. In the release, the NHL said that the franchise had been issued \u201cprevious warnings\u201d about complying with media policies. The league is also punishing Tortorella directly, fining the coach $100,000.<\/p>\n

Per the league, the Golden Knights can appeal the penalties with an in-person meeting with the Commissioner\u2019s Office in New York next week.<\/p>\n

Tortorella was brought on by Vegas in March, as part of a stunning move to fire head coach Bruce Cassidy<\/a> with just three weeks left in the regular season. The gamble to swap Cassidy for Tortorella appears to have worked so far, with the team returning to the conference finals three years after winning the Stanley Cup in 2023.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

With the win on Thursday, Vegas will face the Colorado Avalanche<\/a>, with the best-of-seven series starting next Wednesday. Colorado, who finished the year with the best record in the league, beat the Minnesota Wild<\/a> 4-1 with an overtime comeback win<\/a> on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The 2026 NHL Draft will take place in June, with the Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> selecting first overall<\/a>. Though the Golden Knights\u2019 second-round pick is in jeopardy, they will still have a first-round pick; however, given their appearance in the conference finals, it will be a late pick.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Vegas Golden Knights didn\u2019t follow the league\u2019s protocol after advancing to the Western Conference Finals \u2014 and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":575851,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[2210,233,5292,762,144,3203,1739,5,348,38,4,39966,33420,31,39,1099],"class_list":["post-575850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim-ducks","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-ducks","tag-anaheimducks","tag-bruce-cassidy","tag-colorado-avalanche","tag-draft-pick","tag-ducks","tag-hockey","tag-john-tortorella","tag-minnesota-wild","tag-nhl","tag-nhl-public-relations","tag-postgame-press-conference","tag-toronto-maple-leafs","tag-vegas-golden-knights","tag-western-conference-finals"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116580798226171712","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=575850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/575851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}