Vegas’s success comes from a deep draft
What does success in Vegas say about the NHL, Bettman and the expansion process?
I can pinpoint the exact moment I began feeling a little queasy about this manufactured fairy tale with the overblown moniker: the Vegas Golden Knights.
It was the moment they picked Marc Methot in the expansion draft.
That was when I sensed two things: First, the Knights were going to be better than I thought. Second, the whole thing made me a bit uneasy.
Today, with the Knights everyone’s favourite feel-good story, down a game but definitely not out in this improbable Stanley Cup final, I’m still asking questions. (Please understand none of these questions are meant as dogma and they in no way imply anything but respect for the job done by GM George McPhee, the work-every-shift Knights players or former Habs assistant Gerard Gallant, who has done as fine a coaching job as I have seen in my lifetime, all sports category.)
But the questions remain. Like, What does this say about the NHL? How much influence did commissioner Gary Bettman wield in this process? Where (especially if they win it all) do the Knights go from here? Is it possible that in the long term, it’s better to be a cuddly bunch of lovable losers for a few seasons?
And, finally, how did Canadiens GM Marc Bergevin manage the extraordinarily deft feat of shipping Nathan Beaulieu off to Buffalo before Alexei Emelin was chosen in the expansion draft, thus losing two starting defencemen for the price of one?
But I digress. In the 2000 expansion draft, when the Minnesota Wild and Columbus Blue Jackets came into the league, each existing team could protect nine forwards, five defencemen and one goalie, or two goalies, three defencemen and seven forwards and only players with more than two years of professional experience were included in the draft.
When teams submitted their list for the 2017 Las Vegas draft, they had to expose at least two forwards and a defenceman who had played at least 40 games in the 2016-2017 season, or 70 games in the previous season — and a goalie who was under contract for the 2017-2018 season or who became a RFA in 2017.
It doesn’t sound like much, but in practice the draft bit deep. It caught my attention when the Knights picked up Jonathan Marchessault with the eighth pick, but it was the 19th choice that made me think something was up and the Knights could well be a playoff team. No, I didn’t see them going to the NHL final, but I didn’t think they would be your father’s expansion team, either.
We keep hearing the Knights built a contender from castoffs other teams didn’t want. That simply isn’t true. They built a contender from players other teams were not allowed to protect, which is not at all the same as not wanting them.
Methot was a red flag because I knew him well from his wars with the Canadiens. I knew the effect he could have on a game. I knew about the dozens of bruises Brendan Gallagher wore from his encounters with that big redwood. And I knew how valuable he was riding shotgun for Senators superstar Erik Karlsson.
Ottawa had other options, beginning with exposing Cody Ceci, which in hindsight would have been the better move. But at that point, when you’re forced to decide between a valuable veteran and a promising (and relatively cheap) youngster, the draft is already biting deep.
When the Knights then turned around and flipped Methot to Dallas for goaltending prospect Dylan Ferguson and a 2020 second-rounder, I figured if they could afford to flip a player as valuable as Methot, McPhee had something up his sleeve.
For me, the questions begin with Bettman and his mania for the desert. Bettman has hung in with the Arizona Coyotes far beyond any rational level of support. (Look how quickly he threw in the towel in Atlanta.)
Bettman wanted the glitter and high rollers of Vegas. He did not want the hardcore hockey fans of Quebec City. Vegas is Bettman’s baby every step of the way. Under the circumstances, you don’t have to be terribly cynical to sense the weight of Bettman’s thumb on the scale when the draft rules were drawn up.
The commish has the weight of his personal prestige behind this one. He wants the Knights to be a spectacular success in Nevada, a jewel in the NHL crown. And he has succeeded — beyond his wildest desert dreams, surely.
Then there’s the $500 million. I’m surprised at how fans and reporters believe when an expansion franchise steps up to the plate with half-a-billion George Washingtons, they ought to be rewarded with a contender right off the bat. If you follow that attitude to its logical conclusion, $1 billion ought to get you a Stanley Cup parade before you play your first game — which is what Seattle might expect.
There’s one last troubling question: If they win the Cup, what on earth can the Golden Knights possibly do for an encore?
If they could afford to flip a player as valuable as Methot, McPhee had something up his sleeve.