Vegas is expansion team unlike any other
Nate Schmidt’s first memory of a National Hockey League expansion draft goes back to 2000, when he was eight years old and his beloved home state of Minnesota got a new team, the Wild. That was also when Schmidt first learned about the reality for expansion franchises in their first season.
“They had a lot of growing pains,” Schmidt said with a laugh. The Wild won just 25 games that year, finishing last in the division.
Fast-forward 17 years and there’s Schmidt’s name being announced by the Vegas Golden Knights as their expansion draft selection from the Washington Capitals. The 26-year-old defenceman started his NHL career with a team that won the most regular-season games over the past three years, so Schmidt tempered his expectations for the Golden Knights’ inaugural season. But 20 games in, Vegas has won 13 of them, good for first place in the Pacific Division. So, about those expectations? “I don’t really know how to put it any other way, but not the way we started,” Schmidt said.
Perhaps it hit home for Schmidt when, less than a month into the season, the Golden Knights already had eight wins, matching the Capitals’ miserable 1974-75 campaign. Washington went 8-67-5 that year, still the worst season ever. With more than 40 years separating the two teams, their different trajectories underscore how the expansion draft has changed — and how impressive the Golden Knights’ start has been.
Just three teams who were in a playoff position on Thanksgiving last season fell out by the end of the season, holding true to a trend: Since the league expanded to 30 clubs in 2000, roughly 80 per cent of playoff teams on Turkey Day ultimately make the post-season. That means the Golden Knights are on track to make the playoffs and become the first first-year club to win more than 33 games. They’ve lost just once at home — maybe the Las Vegas attractions have something to do with that — and Schmidt recently quipped to reporters that, “The house always wins.”
“I didn’t really know what to expect,” Schmidt said in a phone interview. “I had hoped that for me personally, that this would be a time where I would have some room to grow into a new role. And I just had hoped that there were other guys on our team that were looking to make that step as well . ... We all could grow in a way together with our roles increasing.”
Members of the 1974-75 Capitals team have followed the Golden Knights with pride and a little envy. The late Abe Pollin’s entry fee into the league was $6 million, chump change compared to Vegas owner Bill Foley’s $500 million. It also bought Foley quite a bit more.
Teams had the option of two player protection formats for the expansion draft — either seven forwards, three defencemen and one goaltender, or any eight skaters and one goaltender. In 2000, when Minnesota and the Columbus Blue Jackets entered the league, established teams were permitted to protect nine forwards, five defencemen and a goaltender.
Golden Knights general manager George McPhee made some side deals, picking up picks and prospects in exchange for avoiding certain players in the draft.
The team amassed assets for its future, but it also was able to snatch a bona fide first-line winger in James Neal, who scored 23 goals last season with Nashville, and a No. 1 goaltender in Marc-Andre Fleury, a three-time Stanley Cup champion with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Proven veterans such as forwards Cody Eakin and David Perron were available.
Then there were a collection of players who seemed to have upside, but perhaps they’d been squeezed out of top spots with their respective clubs because of good depth. Count Schmidt in that last category.
“Effort and work ethic and being able to go out and play a hard, physical game and managing the puck well, those are things that these guys had to do on their former teams, otherwise they wouldn’t be able to play very much,” Schmidt said.
“That’s something I had to do. Now that you give these guys an opportunity to play a little bit more and they have that background and now that you’re adding some offence, it gives a chance to win a lot of games . ... That’s the beauty of it.”
When Washington and Kansas City had their expansion drafts in 1974, teams were permitted to protect 17 skaters, which left a sorry talent pool for the draft.
The fledgling teams combined for 23 wins that season, but the Capitals were clearly the lesser of the two. No other team in the league’s 100-year history has played at least 70 games while posting fewer points (21) or wins (8).
The Capitals won one road game that year — 5-3 over the Golden Seals at Oakland Coliseum — and players famously celebrated by passing a garbage pail around the locker-room as if it was a Stanley Cup.