The real reasons Vegas was stripped of their draft pick.

The National Hockey League shocked the hockey community this week when they announced a major punishment was being levied against the Vegas Golden Knights. The punishment wasn't for any conduct that had occurred on the ice, but rather due to how the Golden Knights had handled their media obligations throughout the season and the punishment was a stiff one.

Golden Knights head coach John Tortorella was slapped with a $100,000 fine and the Golden Knights stripped of a 2nd round draft selection, but was it really all because of one missed post-game press conference?

Recently, Golden Knights beat reporter Ken Boehlke of Sin Bin Vegas published an extensive breakdown of what led up to this major punishment on the part of the NHL, with Boehlke highlighting that this had been an accumulation of several incidents rather than an isolated event.

Boehlke began by acknowledging that the incident in question was very much out of the ordinary.

"In my 9 years of covering games in this league, and I have covered over 100 playoff games, not once ever has a coach not spoken following the game," said Boehlke. "Home or away coach I have never seen it, not once, ever. So that is a significant decision, a purposeful decision."

This however wasn't the first no-show on the part of the Golden Knights who, according to Boehlke, left several members of the media hanging high and dry after cancelling another media event that they themselves had scheduled during their opening round series against the Utah Mammoth.

"Game 3 in Utah they announced that they were going to do a presser up in Utah... that was cancelled about 30 minutes before it was supposed to happen," revealed Boehlke.

Boehlke also pointed to unusual incidents during the course of the season where you might have expected a press conference from an NHL team, but where none had materialized for one reason or another.

"Earlier this season, Carter Hart was signed, controversial signing, and the general manager did not hold a press conference to speak about that," revealed Boehlke.

The Carter Hart singing it seems may have played a role in the Golden Knights eventually reaching this point, with Boehlke pointing to an incident earlier in the season in which a credentialed reporter was escorted out of the building.

"A reporter asked if he could ask questions to the coach about the team potentially signing Carter Hart, he was pulled and escorted out of the building, his credentia was revoked, that was a guy from The Athletic," revealed Boehlke.

There is one other aspect to this that I do suspect likely played a role, although I admit fully that it is only speculation on my part. On Wednesday, the NHL's Department of Player Safety made the controversial decision to suspend Golden Knights defenseman Brayden McNabb for one game, a decision that reportedly has not sat well with the Golden Knights. I suspect that the team's decision to limit media after Game 6 may have been an intentional act of protest on the part of the Golden Knights, and I also suspect that this in turn is what led to what many believe has been a rather disproportionate punishment against the team.

You can hear Boehlke's extensive breakdown of the Golden Knights media issues in the video linked below: