LAS VEGAS -- In a matter of months, former player Murray Craven has gone from being the Montana-based golfing buddy of Bill Foley to calling Foley, the owner of the NHLs newest expansion team, his boss.The 52-year-old Craven -- who played 1,071 games for the?Detroit Red Wings, Philadelphia Flyers, Hartford Whalers, Vancouver Canucks, Chicago Blackhawks and San Jose Sharks,?collecting 759 points along the way -- was a semi-retired hockey dad and businessman before he re-entered the game with a bang. Now, he oversees the building of a new practice facility for the newly minted Vegas Golden Knights, as well as getting his first taste of being an NHL scout.I sat down with Craven -- who was officially named the 31st NHL franchises senior vice president in August -- recently to talk about how hes helping prepare the Golden Knights for their inaugural season next fall.ESPN.com: How did you end up in Montana?Murray Craven:?Im from Medicine Hat [Alberta]. Whitefish, Montana, was our vacation place. Its a ski resort. And its beautiful. Skiing in the wintertime. Great golfing and boating in the summer.?ESPN.com: How did you end up meeting Bill Foley?Craven:?Golfing. We belong to the same golf course there.ESPN.com: Whos better?Craven:?Me.ESPN.com: How many strokes do you have to give him?Craven:?Its kind of not fair. I have to give him quite a few now. He owns his own golf courses, though. He gets up there with the greens keeper and has the tees moved up to wherever its best for him. Its not a fair fight anymore.ESPN.com: Do you remember the moment Foley said, Im thinking of putting an NHL team in Las Vegas. What do you think?Craven:?I remember it distinctly. He pulled up in his boat at my dock. We were playing golf later that day. We chatted about golf and then, as he was pushing off, he said, Oh, and by the way, I think Im going to try and put a team in Las Vegas. And I said, You are out of your mind. They will never let you do it. As I walked away, I said to myself, I think hes serious about this.At that point it was just an idea, even for him. And it gained momentum and slowly picked up speed -- now were sitting here in Las Vegas.ESPN.com: At what point did you go from providing advice as a friend and former player to being part of the team?Craven:?We never talked about it that much, mostly because there was so much uncertainty about the whole thing. Everyone thinks this was kind of baked in the cake, that we were getting this thing a long, long time ago. It really wasnt like that. It was always kind of, Well kick it down the road until we get to that point.My roles always evolving, and it will continue to. But, at the same time, I need to learn the management side of the game too. Thats my goal. I obviously have to get the practice facility built, and we have some American Hockey League responsibilities to take care of, and we have to get T-Mobile [Arena] all ready. And then, in between, in order for me to be involved in the conversations, I have to know the players. My goal is to [scout] 10 games a month. Our regular scouts are going to see 20.ESPN.com: Was the scouting part of the plan for you all along?Craven:?Yeah. Ive always been on the other side of the game. I was always a player. Ive never ventured to the other side, really, so its all new to me. Even scouting is new to me. Its been a learning experience. We have a lot of experienced scouts. We have guys who have decades [of scouting]. So when I sit with them, Im always asking them, What are you looking at? How are you doing it? Everyone thinks, Oh, itd be easy to just go scout a game. Its not. Because you end up watching the game and not actually focusing [on scouting]. So they tutor me on how to do that. Dont try to watch two teams in one night. Focus on one team, and focus on five or six guys at first.ESPN.com: Whats Bill Foley like to work for? And did you worry about the transition from golfing pal to employee?Craven:?Its different. No doubt its different. I knew it would be. Now I work for him. I can still bug him about his golf game. I dont see him as much. Hes a busy guy. Im a busy guy. Im not worried about it, to tell you the truth. Whatever happens, happens.ESPN.com: Has the experience of doing the job been different than you thought?Craven:?No, it hasnt. There are more pieces to it than I thought. Obviously, the game has changed since I played -- especially on the analytics side. But I knew the commitment it was going to take to do it. Its seven days [a week], 365 [days a year] right now. You cannot remove yourself from it. You dont go home at night and put something else on TV. You go home at night and put whatever games are on and you watch them till youre done.ESPN.com: When you finished playing, what did you do? Did you miss hockey, or were you happy to move on?Craven:?After I was done [at the end of the 2000 season], I took a year off. And then I had it in my contract with the Sharks that I would work for them post-hockey. I worked for them in Cleveland. I would spend one week a month in Cleveland. I enjoyed that but I had a young family at the time, a newborn, my boy.So I looked at the road I was going to take and I just wasnt prepared to pay the price. I knew what the future to get into coaching would have held. A lot of buses, a lot of starting at the bottom. Coming off playing 18 years, it just wasnt in the cards for me. So I took some time off, got into some building and construction activities, commercial and residential, and I enjoyed that. And then this opportunity came along, and its great. It was the right time of my life to jump back in. Its a lot of work, though.ESPN.com: There were rumors in the early going that you might end up as the Vegas GM.Craven:?It never, ever even crossed my mind that I would be ready for that. Not a chance. I would never have said that to Bill. Or positioned myself in that manner. That would have been putting my own interests in front of everybodys. Im not that way.?ESPN.com: Whats your relationship like with GM George McPhee?Craven:?Im trying to learn from George. George is my boss. Obviously Ive got other responsibilities. Ive got to build these things. When it comes to the hockey stuff, hes my boss. Hes got the experience. I dont.? Vapormax Herre Til Salg . Vancouver Whitecaps and Toronto FC failed to make the postseason while Montreal Impact fell at the first hurdle losing heavily to Houston Dynamo in the Eastern Conference Knockout Round. Vapormax Sort Herre Danmark . Toronto has dropped games to Indiana and Miami since a five-game winning streak and closed out a three-game road trip at 1-2. http://www.vapormaxdanmark.com/ . 8 Kansas to a 64-63 win over Texas Tech on Tuesday night. The freshman from Vaughan, Ont. Vapormax Dame 2020 . -- Charline Labonte couldnt have asked for a better homecoming. Vapormax Herre Udsalg . But by the time the game started, the Toronto Raptors forward felt even worse. And, for three quarters, it showed as Gay shot a woeful three-for-13 from the field.Scotland captain Preston Mommsen believes his team are ready to grasp the life-changing opportunities at stake at the World Twenty20. The Saltires were in confident mood as they jetted out for India ahead of the tournament opener on March 8.They open their campaign in Nagpur against Afghanistan and also face Zimbabwe and Hong Kong in the preliminary round as they bid to battle through to the second phase, where among the big guns await England and South Africa. Mommsen knows a positive display could not only help see the Scots through, but potentially put their players on course for lucrative deals in county cricket and perhaps even money-rich competitions like the IPL.The batsman - who has previously featured for Leicestershire - said: It is absolutely a shop window for us. We are all one innings, one outstanding performance away from changing our lives. Mommsen says Scotland will use the pain of losing to Afghanistan to their advantage I know its a cliche but the sky is the limit for our guys. If we can put on a stand-out display it could open a whole host of opportunities up from country cricket to playing T20 in tournaments right around the world. Those are real opportunities for most of us.Weve spoken about that as a group and its very exciting for us. Hopefully it inspires us to play even better cricket.Scotland have never won a match at at T20 or 50-over World Cup in 18 attempts and know three victories are likely required against their fellow minnow nations this time if they are to fight their way past round one.ddddddddddddGrant Bradburns team hope to use the experience of playing at last years 50-over World Cup to their benefit in the sub-continent. Afghanistans Shapoor Zadran celebrates a wicket against Scotland There they faced the likes of joint hosts New Zealand and Australia as well as the English - suffering some comprehensive defeats.But they also managed to let slip a precious win despite having the Afghans on the rack at 97-7, with Samiullah Shenwaris 96 helping their rivals eventually snatch victory with just three balls remaining.Mommsen, though, insists that crushing loss can help motivate his side for next months rematch.We will use the pain of losing to Afghanistan as inspiration for this tournament a lot, he said. I still have sleepless nights about that one.But that is what sport is about. Weve got another opportunity in game one to take them on, head on. We will be really fired up for it.Watch the ICC World T20, live on Sky Sports from March 8. Also See: ICC World T20 fixtures ICC World T20 squads WATCH: Best of 2014 World T20 Pick your Ultimate World T20 XI ' ' '