Golden Knights are finally for real
Las Vegas manages to land an array of name players, not usual crew of castoffs, misfits Michael Traikos
“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 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,” said McPhee. “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 top-pairing 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 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.
At least that was the reaction Fleury received as he 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.
“That was crazy. I’m obviously excited to get this started, Fleury said of the crowd’s reaction.
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 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 gives the team a solid No. 1 goalie to build around. But the team won’t be all defence.
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.
But 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 literally in the building phase of its development. Foley has said that Vegas hopes to be in the playoffs by its third season and head coach Gerard Gallant told Postmedia News this week that a Stanley Cup appearance is the goal for 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, as well as selected 13 other players who are 25 or younger.
Aside from owning the sixth overall 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 certain unprotected players, such as Ryan Strome, Brock Nelson or Calvin de Haan.