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Expansion Draft protected list revealed

The trade silence makes all of the 'mock expansion draft' exercises that are being done by pundits and the media completely pointless. Without knowing what exposed players are actually 'protected or will be protected via a side agreement with Vegas', there really is little to be gained going through all 30 teams and guessing who Vegas is taking. Any of the 'obvious' picks may or may not actually be available. And Vegas could make deals to pick certain players and trade them or still make deal to not pick certain players. Everyone is going to need to wait until Wednesday. It will be interesting to see if there are leaks after Vegas has submitted their draft list at 10AM on Wednesday.

Here is speculation from tsn.ca as to who has agreements with Vegas and who doesn't. http://www.tsn.ca/off-season-watch-who-s-got-a-deal-with-vegas-1.782732

The other big part of this process which will be speculated about for the next couple of days are players who Vegas can draft that other teams really really want and what Vegas might be able to get by selecting and then trading such players? As Vegas cleans up all of these valuable goalies (MA Fleury, Antti Raanta, Philipp Grubauer, etc.), just what are they going to get if/when they trade some of those guys to other teams? If they claim Mark Methot, what can they get for him via a trade?
 
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cmaleski2 said:
The trade silence makes all of the 'mock expansion draft' exercises that are being done by pundits and the media completely pointless. Without knowing what exposed players are actually 'protected via a side agreement with Vegas', there really is little to be gained going through all 30 teams and guessing who Vegas is taking. Any of the 'obvious' picks may or may not actually be available. Everyone is going to need to wait until Wednesday. Will be interesting to see if there are leaks after Vegas has submitted their draft list at 10AM on Wednesday.

Here is speculation from tsn.ca as to who has agreements with Vegas and who doesn't. http://www.tsn.ca/off-season-watch-who-s-got-a-deal-with-vegas-1.782732

The other big part of this process which will be speculated about for the next couple of days are players who Vegas can draft that other teams really really want and what Vegas might be able to get by selecting and then trading such players? As Vegas cleans up all of these valuable goalies (MA Fleury, Antti Raanta, Philipp Grubauer, etc.), just what are they going to get if/when they trade some of those guys to other teams? If they claim Mark Methot, what can they get for him via a trade?
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McPhee currently has many of his fellow GM's by the short and curlies right now! The side deals that are already done with teams like Anaheim are one thing, but the fact that he can use one teams trade offer against the other right now in terms of what player he selects is just the hammer overall and he will swing the hammer hard and often to load up on picks and prospects.

No other expansion team in the history of the NHL has been given this much talent and this much clout to date. $500 million expansion fees will do that it seems.
 
It is going to be interesting to see what path McPhee takes. On one hand based on available players, he could choose to draft a pretty competitive team that would not be the worse in the league. I would be willing to bet they could finish above 5-6 other teams. Long term, I am not sure that makes sense, but it is an option.

The other choice is to work as many side deals, take valuable trade bait (goalies, etc.) and end up with a ton of draft picks over this draft and likely future years. This means they will likely stink for the foreseeable future. Of course, there is some hybrid combination of each to figure out. Odds are they will be solid defensively and in goal but pretty much struggle to score goals and likely be a little boring.

I am guessing they will take thier lumps and wait for all the picks to develop, while also hoping some stud player comes along in the next 2-3 years to build the franchise around. An interesting choice would be to grab all the picks you can, so overall have a weak team while building for the future, but make a salary dump move with Washington and get Ovie in Vegas to add excitement and buzz. I doubt Ovie would go for it, but there is history there with McPhee.
 
CarolinaPen said:
It is going to be interesting to see what path McPhee takes. On one hand based on available players, he could choose to draft a pretty competitive team that would not be the worse in the league. I would be willing to bet they could finish above 5-6 other teams. Long term, I am not sure that makes sense, but it is an option.

The other choice is to work as many side deals, take valuable trade bait (goalies, etc.) and end up with a ton of draft picks over this draft and likely future years. This means they will likely stink for the foreseeable future. Of course, there is some hybrid combination of each to figure out. Odds are they will be solid defensively and in goal but pretty much struggle to score goals and likely be a little boring.

I am guessing they will take thier lumps and wait for all the picks to develop, while also hoping some stud player comes along in the next 2-3 years to build the franchise around. An interesting choice would be to grab all the picks you can, so overall have a weak team while building for the future, but make a salary dump move with Washington and get Ovie in Vegas to add excitement and buzz. I doubt Ovie would go for it, but there is history there with McPhee.
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That is the interesting part indeed CP! If McPhee was going best player, you would pick James Neal over anything else the Preds left unprotected...but if he goes youth and long term plan...you maybe go with a guy like Sissons or Pontus Aberg. Same with the Caps...do you select Grubauer and maybe flip him for more picks and prospects...or go with a guy like Nate Schmidt who had a great playoffs and could easily play in the top 4 on defense for Vegas for the next few years?

Vegas and that market also seems likes an intriguing destination for some free agents...and I would not be surprised to see a few guys sign there on July 1st to fill out their roster since McPhee will likely trade away several players he picks on Wednesday night.
 
Look, in the context of that $500 million expansion fee you'd have to assume that Vegas is going to try and build some sort of competitive roster right away. They've certainly stocked up on prospect types who might well be ready sooner rather than later in their signings to date. Plus, I don't think you hire McPhee to take the low and slow approach to the roster building. He's a veteran and relatively proactive manager who is used to working with fairly high budget, competitive teams.

All that said, if I had to guess I'd lean towards Vegas thinking in terms of best available within roles. And yeah, it's absolutely conceivable that they could cobble together a team better than the Canes straight out of the gate. Joyful though, that.
 
I think they have a silly name... Golden Knights... meh...

Loading up on all the goalies could certainly backfire. What are you going to do with 6 legit goalies - the other GMs know you have to make trades. Might get away with one extra before the weight begins to tilt the trading scale against you. Plus the crazy/drama factor of all those goalies on a roster let alone in the same room...
 
You can go light on the extra goalie thing and still put yourself in a good position to make a trade down the road. Take 3 experienced keepers, sort out the two you want to keep after camp breaks, park the other one in the minors and wait for somebody else to need help. If not, then make sure none of those guys are on long term deals and you just walk away from one after a year. Simple.
 
So in theory today should be a quiet day with the big reveal tonight with the NHL Awards ceremony telecast. Vegas' final expansion draft list is due to the NHL by 10AM this morning. I'm still thinking some things will leak out today, but maybe everyone is able to keep it under wraps.

The roster/trade freeze for teams to make deals with each other outside of Vegas ends at 8AM tomorrow (Thursday June 22nd). I'm not sure when we might hear about any 'post expansion draft' deals (ie Vegas trading a player they drafted to another team). I don't know if those have to wait until tomorrow as well or if those could actually be completed today and be part of the announcement tonight. I have no idea how the NHL is going to reveal all of the side deal trades either, but I guess we will find out later tonight.
 
In thinking through this in a fair and objective manner, the Golden Knights are absolutely crazy if they don't make a deal to make Ryan Murphy their pick from the hurricanes. The kid is young, tons of potential. Surely they can see through the fake injury smoke screen and how the Canes have done such a good job of hiding his phenomenal skills. The kid was like a second coach on the ice, and all the oohs and aaahs every time he had the puck... He's exactly the kind of material the Knights need both to have an immediate impact - he's primed to take off as a league leading defenseman now, and as a long term rock on the blueline - he's still young and with such a simple to pronounce name is ideal for a new hockey fanbase to say and remember. "Let me introduce... Ryan Murphy, CAPTAIN of YOUR LAS VEGAS KNIGHTS!." So happy for the kid to get this shot! Hated he was so upset with the organization about getting his car filled up with packing popcorn that he was never able to get comfortable around the guys.
 
20 some years later...

"I like to sincerely thank the Carolina Hurricanes for drafting me and giving me my first chance. I really thought I was about to turn things around when they filled my car with packing peanuts and I felt like the most unloved person in the world. Looking back now, I realize that my Hall of Fame Selection would never have happened if the Las Vegas Golden Showers had not made me their inaugural Captain.

And in conclusion, in your face JeffBear! Thank You Good Night!"
 
I can see him sitting at a round table on some NHL show discussing careers with fellow hall-of-famers Gretzky (he's an old man now) a grey haired Sidney Crosby, Sebastian Aho, Jonathan Toews and young NHL Stars DWIND III, and MediumKahuna.
 
HockeyPat said:
20 some years later...

"I like to sincerely thank the Carolina Hurricanes for drafting me and giving me my first chance. I really thought I was about to turn things around when they filled my car with packing peanuts and I felt like the most unloved person in the world. Looking back now, I realize that my Hall of Fame Selection would never have happened if the Las Vegas Golden Showers had not made me their inaugural Captain.

And in conclusion, in your face JeffBear! Thank You Good Night!"
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Las Vegas Golden Showers...wow, does Adidas need a jersey redesign already for that club???
 
HockeyPat said:
20 some years later...

"I like to sincerely thank the Carolina Hurricanes for drafting me and giving me my first chance. I really thought I was about to turn things around when they filled my car with packing peanuts and I felt like the most unloved person in the world. Looking back now, I realize that my Hall of Fame Selection would never have happened if the Las Vegas Golden Showers had not made me their inaugural Captain.

And in conclusion, in your face JeffBear! Thank You Good Night!"
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That's awesome. Seriously hysterical.
 
cmaleski2 said:
So in theory today should be a quiet day with the big reveal tonight with the NHL Awards ceremony telecast. Vegas' final expansion draft list is due to the NHL by 10AM this morning. I'm still thinking some things will leak out today, but maybe everyone is able to keep it under wraps.

The roster/trade freeze for teams to make deals with each other outside of Vegas ends at 8AM tomorrow (Thursday June 22nd). I'm not sure when we might hear about any 'post expansion draft' deals (ie Vegas trading a player they drafted to another team). I don't know if those have to wait until tomorrow as well or if those could actually be completed today and be part of the announcement tonight. I have no idea how the NHL is going to reveal all of the side deal trades either, but I guess we will find out later tonight.
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I actually thought Bob McKenzie on Twitter did a pretty fair job of what these side deals might look like without actually confirming every detail:

Ducks manage to protect Vatanen and Manson from Vegas and surrender Clayton Stoner and Shea Theodore instead in a trade.
Isles manage to steer Vegas clear of all the unprotected forwards like Strome, and Nelson and trade away their first round pick and Grabovski's contract to Vegas.
Columbus trades their first rounder and a prospect to Vegas so McPhee stays clear of Korpisalo, J. Johnson, Josh Anderson.
Chicago trades Marcus Kruger to Vegas and Vegas selects Trevor Van Riemsdyk left unprotected by the Hawks.
Tampa trades a pick or a prospect or both to Vegas to stay clear of selecting young D Dotchin and Koekkok.
Minnesota trades Eric Huala and a prospect to keep Vegas away from Dumba, Scandella and Staal!
Florida lets Vegas select Marchessault and Rielly Smith...that will help Florida clear the large amount of salary owed to Smith through 2020/21.
 
Maybe I am a hard critic, but I haven't seen a decent new nor re-do jersey for an NHL club for what seems like forever. Once the 'go black' fad abated we are back with funky jersey's and logos. With it being the city of sin, they couldn't come up with anything better that? Ok Queens would have funny too. Look at their jersey through a kaleidoscope and you think your looking at the Senators jersey.
 
It will be interesting to see what the actual side deals are, but if I were McPhee I would tell half the teams to screw off. The players on the expansion lists are usually better than the rumored side deal returns. In any case we won't really know what Vegas looks like until Friday as half of the guys announced on TV tonight won't be around by the weekend due to other deals during the draft. The only safe bets are whatever guys they fly there for tonight and parade around to media and have in the team jersey's, although they probably aren't entirely safe either.
 
HockeyPat said:
20 some years later...

"I like to sincerely thank the Carolina Hurricanes for drafting me and giving me my first chance. I really thought I was about to turn things around when they filled my car with packing peanuts and I felt like the most unloved person in the world. Looking back now, I realize that my Hall of Fame Selection would never have happened if the Las Vegas Golden Showers had not made me their inaugural Captain.

And in conclusion, in your face JeffBear! Thank You Good Night!"
Click to expand...

It would be an honor just to be remembered thus.
 
CAR to VGK - Connor Brickley F +2017 5th rd


So far:
COL - Calvin Pickard G
VAN - Luca Sbisa D
ARI - Teemu Pulkkinen F
NJ - Jon Merrill D
BUF - William Carrier F +6th rd
DET - Tomas Nosek F
DAL - Cody Eakin F
FLA - Jonathan Marchessault F +Reilly Smith F for a 2018 4th
LA - Brayden McNabb D
CAR - Connor Brickley F +2017 5th rd
WPG - Chris Thorburn F + 2017 1st, 2019 3rd for CBJ's 2017 1st
PHI - PE Bellemare F
TB - Jason Garrison D + Nikita Gusev F, 2017 2nd rd, 2018 4th rd
NYI - JF Berube G + Mikhail Grabovski F, Jake Bischoff D, 2017 1st , 2019 2nd
NAS - James Neal F
CGY - Deryk Engelland D
TOR - Brendan Leipsic F
BOS - Colin Miller D
OTT - Marc Methot D
SJ - David Schlemko D
STL - David Perron F
NYR - Oscar Lindberg F
EDM - Griffin Reinhart D
MTL - Alexei Emelin D
ANA - Clayton Stoner D + Shea Theodore F
MIN - Erik Haula F + Alex Tuch F for 2017 or 2018 3rd rd
CBJ - William Karlsson F + David Clarkson F, 2017 1st, 2019 2nd
CHI - Trevor Van Riemsdyk D
PIT - Marc-Andre Fleury G + 2020 2nd rd
WAS - Nate Schmidt D
 
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