In meeting with the media today, GM George McPhee of the Vegas Golden Knights was excited about the prospects of his new expansion team. Chris Johnston of Sportsnet sent out a series of tweets quoting McPhee, as he talked about the pre-draft trades he’s completed. The GM announced that there are at least six deals but that he’s lost track of exactly how many. He also said that the team would claim several extra defenders that he would need to trade after the expansion process is complete, and was surprised at how much scoring talent the team has been able to acquire. Even though he had set a deadline last night, several GMs had travel issues in getting to Vegas and McPhee is still talking with them. The Toronto Maple Leafs are one such team, reports Johnston.
The Lightning, Blue Jackets, Islanders, Ducks, and Blackhawks have all been heavily rumored to have deals in place with the Golden Knights, either to eat a bad contract or protect extra players from expansion. Other teams, like the Nashville Predators and Minnesota Wild have tried to get something done without much reported success though obviously that can change in a moment.
One of the most interesting parts of the week will be how many of the expansion selections will be traded immediately, as available players like James Neal have little use to the expansion franchise but could hold big trade value on the open market. Mathew Dumba, Sami Vatanen, Josh Manson, Jason Demers, Calvin de Haan and others are available on defense, and would command healthy returns if they were actually made available. McPhee made it clear that he’s willing to go that route, telling Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports that some expansion picks will be traded the very next day. The Golden Knights are in an incredible position of leverage as the minutes tick down. They must submit their expansion selections and any free agent contracts tomorrow morning, before everything is announced at the NHL Awards show tomorrow night.
It should prove to be one of the most interesting nights in recent hockey history, with transactions flying all around the league. Remember that there is a still a moratorium on any movement that doesn’t include the expansion team until early Thursday morning, meaning teams will have to wait and watch the expansion frenzy while sitting on their proverbial hands.
Thinking Dumba to Boston for 2017 1st and Spooner
Unfortunately he plays the wrong side, they protected Brodin who plays the side we need. McAvoy and Carlo both play on that side
I’m getting very tired of reading that “Team X doesn’t want to lose a player FOR NOTHING in the expansion draft.” If you were to ask the league owners and GMs if they would take $16 million dollars in exchange for a ‘bottom half’ player, almost every one would say yes. In fact, they DID say yes when they voted to allow Vegas into the league. Each got their share of the $500 million fee Vegas paid to enter the league. Now the teams, having been paid, have to give up that ‘bottom half’ player.
Similarly, the report that McPhee has all the cards or power or whatever… well, the league negotiated to give it to him for that $500 million payment. And the league had all the cards or power during that negotiation… Vegas was standing on the outside saying “Please, sirs, may we play with you? We’ll bring pucks, sticks, a new arena and pay each of you. Please?” And the league tweaked the terms to make sure that every team could keep its superstars so Vegas could have a team, and a few very good players, but no current superstars. And now, having taken the money, McPhee gets his turn to exercise the power their $500 million bought. I’ll shed no tears for an older franchise that must lick the wounds of losing a player for a $16 million cash payment.
But kudos to the league for marketing all the drama of the expansion draft, and sucking in all the fans who are watching and guessing about the process. It appears Vegas is doing a pretty good job with the hand being dealt, but we won’t know for a few months. And good luck to Vegas in building a team we will enjoy watching play competitively against, but mostly losing to, our favorite teams. Longer term, I hope they are successful because a good competitor makes everyone better.