LONG JOURNEY INTO KNIGHTS ENDS AS VEGAS HAS A FULL NHL ROSTER
McPhee picks Cup-winning goaltender and a Nevada resident in the expansion draft
“We’re real.”
And with that, George McPhee exhaled.
It had been a long 12 months for the Vegas Golden Knights general manager, who had spent the past year running countless mock expansion drafts in preparation for this moment.
On Wednesday morning, after submitting the final 30-name list to the NHL, it finally became official.
The Golden Knights were for real.
“It’s really hard to believe we’re here now with this list,” McPhee said. “Three days ago we had a whiteboard with no names on it and now it looks like we have a hockey team and we like how it looks.”
Indeed, this isn’t your usual expansion team roster.
The Golden Knights have a goalie in Marc-Andre Fleury who a week ago helped Pittsburgh win a second straight Stanley Cup and a winger in Jonathan Marchessault who scored 30 goals last season. They have defencemen (Marc Methot, Jason Garrison and Brayden McNabb) capable of playing toppairing minutes and forwards (James Neal, David Perron and Cody Eakin) capable of making a difference.
And with three first-round picks for Friday’s NHL draft, more are on the way.
The new team even has a hometown favourite, with Las Vegas resident Deryk Engelland getting selected. Side deals prevented the team from acquiring players such as Eric Staal and Matt Dumba, but there’s plenty of talent here. Vegas has name players, if not potential stars.
Fleury received a standing ovation as he walked on stage at T-Mobile Arena in a Golden Knights jersey during Wednesday night’s expansion draft reveal.
“I didn’t expect that,” Fleury said of the crowd’s reaction.
“That was crazy. I’m obviously excited to get this started.”
The Golden Knights might not be a playoff team, but they also might not finish last next season.
At the very least, it won’t be like watching the Ottawa Senators go 10-70-4 in their expansion year, and that’s the point.
The Golden Knights paid US$500 million to plant a hockey team in the desert and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman changed the expansion draft process to help ensure it grows a fan base. Teams were limited in who they could protect.
As a result, these are not “a bunch of misfits nobody wanted,” as then-winger Jody Shelley once described the 1992-93 Senators. No one wanted to lose these players. In a lot of cases, teams gave up draft picks to prevent certain players from being chosen.
“I believe we put together a great team from the net out,” Golden Knights owner Bill Foley said after participating in his first board of governors meeting.
“What surprised me was the quality of some of our forwards that we were able to get out of this situation, moving players around.
“As I said, the people of Las Vegas are going to be happy with what we did. They’re going to be pleasantly surprised.”
The Golden Knights’ biggest
strength will be in net, where Fleury, who led the Penguins past the Columbus Blue Jackets in the first round of the playoffs, gives them team a solid No. 1 goalie to build around.
Marchessault led the Panthers in goals this season. Neal, who reached the Stanley Cup final with the Nashville Predators, has potted 40 goals in the past. Perron had 18 goals in a depth role with the St. Louis Blues.
“I think we’re going to be competitive,” said McNabb, who found out a day ago that he was being claimed.
“I think there’s a lot of good players that we selected and some young guys, too. We have great goaltending and it starts there. It should be fun.”
It wasn’t just about the players that the Golden Knights added today. With three of the first 13 picks in this weekend’s draft, it’s about the players they hope to add in the future.
The team is in the building phase of its development. Foley has said Vegas hopes to be in the playoffs by its third season and head coach Gerard Gallant told Postmedia News this week that the goal is a Stanley Cup appearance in 2023 or 2024.
For that to happen, the team needs players that can grow with
the team. Perhaps that was why Vegas traded for 21-year-olds Alex Tuch and Shea Theodore, and selected 13 other players who are 25 or younger.
Aside from owning the sixthoverall pick in this weekend’s draft, the team also acquired the 13th overall pick (from Winnipeg Jets) and the 15th overall pick (from the New York Islanders) in exchange for not taking unprotected players such as Ryan Strome, Brock Nelson and Calvin de Haan.
It was a savvy move by McPhee, who made 10 trades leading up to the expansion draft. With more than 35 players on the roster, he could end up making another 10 before the week is over.
For now, Vegas has a team, and it’s pretty exciting.
“I think it will be great,” said Engelland, who played two seasons for the Las Vegas Wranglers in the ECHL, where he met his wife.
“From the ticket drive to just the hype around town, everywhere you go you see Knights stuff everywhere, hats, shirts, everything. Talking to people around the rinks, they’re excited about the team. I think it will go well.”