Golden Knights get pick of the litter
Fleury, Neal, Vatanen among unprotected headliners ripe for selection in Las Vegas expansion draft
Three-time Stanley Cup champion goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, Nashville forward James Neal and Anaheim defenceman Sami Vatanen were among the high-profile players made available on Sunday for the Vegas Golden Knights to select in the NHL expansion draft.
Now it’s on Golden Knights general manager George McPhee to pore over the list of unprotected players and select one from each of the NHL’s 30 teams by Wednesday.
Fleury was left unprotected by Pittsburgh after he agreed to waive the no-movement clause in his contract. The Penguins instead protected Matt Murray a week after the second-year goalie helped to lead them to their second consecutive league title.
The Predators were put in a bind by exposing Neal, a 10-time 20-goal-scorer, because they elected to protect a fourth defenceman.
Vatanen was the odd-man out in being left unprotected from a deep and talented group of Ducks defencemen. The fifth-year player, however, won’t be ready for the start of the season after having surgery to repair a shoulder injury.
Other notable forwards left unprotected were: Minnesota centre Eric Staal, a nine-time 20-goal-scorer, Los Angeles forward Dustin Brown and Montreal’s Tomas Plekanec. As for defencemen, Buffalo’s Zach Bogosian and Dallas’ Dan Hamhuis are available.
The unprotected list includes players eligible to become restricted or unrestricted free agents, which the Golden Knights have the option to sign over the next three days. Any pending free agent signed would count as Vegas’ expansion-draft selection from that player’s team.
What’s uncertain is how many trades the Golden Knights have negotiated with teams to influence which player Vegas selects or avoids.
McPhee has said he’s had contact with all teams and was expected to have several trades in place. In exchange, McPhee was intent on stockpiling draft picks to help spur the franchise’s growth through youth.
Those deals won’t be formally revealed until Wednesday.
The Islanders were the only team that protected five defencemen: Johnny Boychuk, Nick Leddy, Travis Hamonic, Ryan Pulock and Adam Pelech, leaving forwards Josh Bailey, Brock Nelson and Ryan Strome and defencemen Calvin de Haan and Thomas Hickey available.
The Senators were handcuffed by veteran defenceman Dion Phaneuf ’s decision to not waive his no-movement clause. That forced the team to also expose top-pairing blueliner Marc Methot.
The release of the teams’ protected lists kicks off a busy two-week stretch for the NHL. The teams will gather in Chicago for the two-day entry draft, which opens on Friday.
Then comes the start of free agency, which opens on July 1.
Several general managers, including Arizona’s John Chayka on Saturday, noted how the Golden Knights can corner the goalie market and use those assets as trade bait.
“Vegas doesn’t need 10,” said Chayka after making a proactive move to free up the Coyotes’ protected list by trading veteran goalie Mike Smith to Calgary.
Chayka was exaggerating, but only slightly. The Golden Knights can’t select 10 goalies because they’re required to use up 26 of their 30 picks in filling 14 forwards, nine defencemen and three goalie spots.
The start of the expansion draft process means a trading freeze is in place through Thursday morning for the 30 other teams.
That doesn’t mean the other GMs can’t talk.
Said Chayka: “I think the league will kind of wait and see how the exposure lists comes out, then hopefully re-engage and see if we can make a deal that makes our team better.”