Neal, Fleury reunited as Golden Knights
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Veteran forward James Neal and goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury headlined the expansion draft selections of the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday at the NHL Awards.
Neal had 23 goals and 18 assists last season for the Nashville Predators, who lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins in their first-ever Stanley Cup final.
The 29-year-old from Whitby, Ont., has 238 goals and 213 assists in 632 career NHL games over nine seasons split between Nashville, Pittsburgh and the Dallas Stars.
Fleury was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2003 NHL draft. He won three Stanley Cups with the Penguins.
Last season, he had an 18-10-7 record with a 3.02 goals-against average and a .909 save percentage in 38 games for Pittsburgh.
Fleury has a career record of 384220-70, with a 2.58 GAA and a .912 save percentage.
Goalie Calvin Pickard was the first selection in the expansion draft. He had a 2.98 goals-against average with a .904 save percentage for the Colorado Avalanche last season.
All of the Golden Knights’ selections were announced during the NHL awards show.
Canadian teams lost several players in the expansion draft: Vancouver lost defenceman Luca Sbisa, Winnipeg gave up forward Chris Thorburn, Calgary had defenceman Deryk Engelland selected and Toronto forward Brendan Leipsic was also taken.
Ottawa defenceman Marc Methot was also lost to the expansion and will be joined on the Golden Knights’ blue line by Griffin Reinhart (Edmonton) and Alexi Emelin (Montreal).
Rounding out Vegas’s roster from the expansion draft were forwards Teemu Pulkkinen (Arizona), William Carrier (Buffalo), Cody Eakin (Dallas), Tomas Nosek (Detroit), Jonathan Marchessault (Florida), Connor Brickley (Carolina), Pierre-Edouard Bellemare (Philadelphia), David Perron (St. Louis), Oscar Lindberg (New York Rangers), Erik Haula (Minnesota) and William Karlsson (Columbus).
On defence, the Golden Knights took, Jon Merrill (New Jersey), Brayden McNabb (Los Angeles), Jason Garrison (Tampa Bay), Colin Miller (Boston), David Schlemko (San Jose), Clayton Stoner (Anaheim), Trevor van Riemsdyk (Chicago) and Nate Schmidt (Washington).
J-F Berube (New York Islanders) will be Vegas’s third goalie.