The Vegas Golden Knights are Stanley Cup champions, winning the biggest title in the sport with two Flin Flonners holding key roles behind the scenes.
Both Erin Ginnell and Vaughn Karpan, long-time hockey experts with deep Flin Flon and northern Manitoba roots, played a part in getting the Cup to Vegas earlier this week. Each serves with the team's front office - Ginnell as an amateur scout, Karpan as the teams director of player personnel.
Ginnell is part of hockey royalty in Flin Flon, the son of former Bomber and team coach Paddy Ginnell and the father of former Bombers Brad and Riley Ginnell. Raised in Medicine Hat, Alta., Ginnell spent his early years in Flin Flon, where Patty coached the Bombers during Erin's childhood before moving to Victoria, Lethbridge, Swift Current and other locations.
Ginnell played for a pair of teams in Swift Current in their SJHL days, then with New Westminster, Calgary, Seattle, Regina and Swift Current again in the WHL. Finishing his junior career with two seasons in the SJHL with the Minot Americans, Ginnell played three years of hockey at Red Deer College before taking his career off-ice.
Since 2000, Ginnell has worked as a scout with different NHL teams, first with the Columbus Blue Jackets, then the Colorado Avalanche, followed by a 12-year stretch with the Florida Panthers, including five years as the team's director of amateur scouting - ironically, the team his new employer beat in the finals to win the Cup.
Ginnell left the Panthers to begin scouting with the Golden Knights in 2016. Since then, Ginnell has been an amateur scout with the club, focusing on western Canadian players.
Karpan was born in Flin Flon and raised in The Pas, playing junior hockey with the Brandon Wheat Kings in the early 1980s before playing with the Univ. of Manitoba Bisons. Karpan was part of the Canadian national hockey team during and after his time with the Bisons, playing more than 200 games for the national team and suiting up at both the 1984 and 1988 Winter Olympics for Canada, finishing fourth both times.
After retiring from the game, Karpan became an amateur scout for several NHL teams, first for the original Winnipeg Jets and then for the Phoenix Coyotes, becoming the team's director of amateur scouting in 1999. After working as a pro and amateur scout for the Montreal Canadiens for a decade, Karpan was named as the Golden Knights' first director of player personnel in 2016, ahead of the team's first season - a job he has held ever since. Karpan is a member of the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame.
