Grading each team's performance in the 2017 expansion draft
The Vegas Golden Knights made out like bandits, thanks in large part to, "some of the best managing you'll ever see in the history of professional sports"
The narrative surrounding the Vegas Golden Knights is that owner Bill Foley paid $500 million to join the annual board of governors croquet game, and in return the NHL gifted him an instant Stanley Cup-contending team. That’s incorrect, of course. In reality, the NHL provided the Golden Knights with a good team. A really good team. But it was 30 teams in the NHL that made Vegas a powerhouse by making deals with GM George McPhee that ended up as lopsided as Andre the Giant at one end of the teetertotter.
In fact, McPhee might get into the Hockey Hall of Fame one day solely on how he manipulated the expansion draft process four years ago. Seriously. At the very least, he and the Golden Knights are still dining out on their strategy. “What George McPhee did with that situation,” said one current GM, “was quite honestly, some of the best managing you’ll ever see in the history of professional sports. And I really don’t think that’s an overstatement. When it was all said and done, I was shocked at what he was able to do. And for myself, I wouldn’t even have thought of going down that path.”
Armed with benefit of hindsight, you’d have to think most GMs will refuse to fall into the same trap. You’d think. But there will still be deals made to dump salary or to entice the Seattle Kraken to stay away from an exposed player. “I think what you’ll see this time is more guys saying, ‘Just take my eighth-best forward or my fourth-best defenseman,’ ” another GM said. “I think there was a tendency to overthink it last time around.”
With that in mind, and with the Kraken’s turn in the expansion draft just one day away, let’s revisit what each team did four years ago.
Hockey Unfiltered with Ken Campbell is a reader-supported platform. Both free and paid subscriptions are available. Those who want to support my work are encouraged to take out a paid subscription.
ANAHIEM DUCKS
GM: BOB MURRAY
What happened?: There were a lot of moving parts at the time. But in one of the worst moves of that process, the Ducks traded Shea Theodore to the Golden Knights in return for them taking Clayton Stoner, whom the Ducks were basically paying $3.25 million not to play for them. He had one year left on his deal and by arranging for Vegas to take Stoner, it took a terrible contract off the Ducks’ hands and allowed them to protect Josh Manson and Brandon Montour. Complicating matters was the fact the Ducks had to protect Kevin Bieksa, who had a no-move clause.
The result: Theodore had an instant and significant impact on the Golden Knights and has developed into a lynchpin defenseman and a Norris Trophy-caliber rearguard. His 39 goals and 154 points with Vegas puts him in the top 20 defensemen in the NHL in both categories since 2017-18.
Grade: F
ARIZONA COYOTES
GM: John Chayka
What happened?: One of the few teams that went the eight-skater, one-goalie route for its protection list, the Coyotes didn’t exactly have a plethora of talent on their roster that needed to be protected. They lost Teemu Pulkkinen, a winger they had acquired at the trade deadline from the Minnesota Wild who played four games with them.
The result: Pulkkinen played one year in the minors for the Chicago Wolves, which was the Golden Knights’ farm team at the time, then defected to the KHL, where he was still playing last season.
Grade: A
BOSTON BRUINS
GM: Don Sweeney
What happened?: The Bruins went the 7-3-1 route for their protected list and lost Colin Miller after opting to protect Zdeno Chara and Torey Krug as well as Kevan Miller, who ended up having to retire last season after being plagued by injuries the past two years.
The result: Colin Miller was an offensive force for the Golden Knights in their first season, leading their defense corps in goals (10) and points (41). With a glut on the blueline and a sense of urgency to be salary cap compliant in time for the 2019-20 season, the Knights traded him after their second season to the Buffalo Sabres in exchange for a second-round pick in 2021 (previously acquired from the St. Louis Blues) and a fifth-rounder in 2022.
Grade: C
BUFFALO SABRES
GM: Jason Botterill
What happened?: Concerned he was going to lose goalie Linus Ullmark, who was exposed after the Sabres protected Robin Lehner, Botterill sent a sixth-round pick to Vegas to get them to take winger William Carrier, a grinder who had been in the organization four years and had just finished his rookie season in Buffalo.
The result: Carrier has turned out to be a useful player for the Golden Knights and still toils on their fourth line. The Sabres might have exposed Zemgus Girgensons instead, but that might be a case of six-of-one, half-dozen-of-the-other. Tyler Ennis might have been another possibility, but shortly after the expansion draft, Ennis was packaged with Marcus Foligno and a third-round pick to the Minnesota Wild in exchange for defenseman Marco Scandella, a fourth-rounder and repatriated winger Jason Pominville.
Grade: C+
CALGARY FLAMES
GM: Brad Treliving
What happened?: Things were pretty straightforward for the Flames, who went the 7-3-1 route. Only four of those protected players are still part of the organization, and that could go down to three if the Kraken take beloved captain Mark Giordano in the expansion draft. The Golden Knights picked through Calgary’s scraps and took defenseman Deryk Engelland, a 35-year-old pending unrestricted free agent who had played in Vegas in the minors and made his off-season home there.
The result: Vegas used its negotiating window to sign Engelland to a one-year deal worth $2 million. After he posted a career-high with 23 points, they signed him to a one-year deal in each of the next two seasons. Engelland was invaluable in the community, particularly in the wake of the mass shooting that occurred there just before their first season.
Grade: C
CAROLINA HURRICANES
GM: RON FRANCIS
What happened?: Another case where there was not a whole lot of meat on the bone for Vegas to pick. The Golden Knights ended up going with left winger Connor Brickley, a pending unrestricted free agent who had scored 15 goals for Carolina’s AHL team the previous season. In retrospect, Joakim Nordstrom probably would have been a better choice, but the Hurricanes sweetened the pot a little by sending a fifth-round pick to Vegas.
The result: Brickley signed that summer with the Florida Panthers and became nothing more than the answer to a trivia question.
Grade: B
CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS
GM: Stan Bowman
What happened?: Two years removed from their three-Cups-in-six-years run, the Blackhawks had almost no choice when it came to their protected list. Because they had no-move clauses, forwards Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Marian Hossa and Artem Anisimov (wait, what?), defensemen Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook, Niklas Hjalmarsson and goalie Corey Crawford all had to be protected. Vegas opted to go with defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk.
The result: van Riemsdyk was flipped the next day, along with a seventh-round pick, to Carolina for the Hurricanes’ second-round pick, which the Golden Knights used to select Jake Leschyshyn, who played his rookie pro season in 2019-20 and may find himself in the NHL someday.
Grade: B-
COLORADO AVALANCHE
GM: Joe Sakic
What happened?: The Avalanche were coming off a season in which they finished dead-last in the league by 21 points, so there was not a lot of talent from which to choose. Vegas chose goalie Calvin Pickard, who had actually done a pretty valiant job as the Avs’ No. 1 goalie the previous season.
The result: Just before the season opened, the Golden Knights traded Pickard to the Toronto Maple Leafs for Tobias Lindberg and a sixth-round pick. Lindberg played less than a full season in the minors for Vegas before being dealt to Pittsburgh for Ryan Reaves and a fourth-round pick.
Grade: B
COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS
GM: Jarmo Kekalainen
What happened?: There’s no way of sugar coating this. It was an unmitigated disaster for the Blue Jackets. Not wanting to lose a player such as Josh Anderson, Anton Forsberg or Joonas Korpisalo, Columbus traded a first-round pick in 2017, a second-rounder in 2019 and salary dump David Clarkson to Vegas in return for taking William Karlsson, who had scored 45 points combined over the previous two seasons for the Blue Jackets.
The result: Oy vey. As we all now know, Karlsson exploded for 43 goals and 78 points in his first season as a Golden Misfit and has been consistently in the high 50-point range (prorated over full seasons) since then. The Golden Knights took the first-round pick they got from Columbus and packaged it with a third-round pick to move up to No. 13 in the draft, a pick they used to select Nick Suzuki, whom they moved to get Max Pacioretty.
Grade: F (only because there’s no grade lower to give them)
DALLAS STARS
GM: Jim Nill
What happened?: When it came to picking over the Stars’ unprotected players, the Golden Knights could have taken a goalie in Antti Niemi or Kari Lehtonen, but they opted for Cody Eakin, a hard-working fourth-liner. They also could have had defenseman Jamie Oleksiak, who was unprotected.
The result: Eakin turned out to be a surprise for the Knights, scoring 22 goals for them in his second season in Vegas. He was dealt to the Winnipeg Jets at the trade deadline in 2020 for a conditional fourth pick in this year’s draft.
Grade: C-
DETROIT RED WINGS
GM: Ken Holland
What happened?: The Red Wings had exposed goalie Petr Mrazek, a 25-year-old who was coming off a bad season. Vegas went instead with winger Tomas Nosek, who had just come off leading the Red Wings’ AHL team in playoff scoring and winning a Calder Cup championship.
The result: Nosek turned out to be another very useful bottom-six player for the Golden Knights, a role he filled right up through last season. He enters this summer as an unrestricted free agent.
Grade: C
EDMONTON OILERS
GM: Peter Chiarelli
What happened?: The Oilers didn’t leave much for the Golden Knights, who took Griffin Reinhart, a former junior phenom who was drafted fourth overall by the New York Islanders in 2012 and had spent the previous two seasons with the Oilers’ farm team.
The result: Reinhart didn’t play a single game for Vegas, but spent two years with the Golden Knights’ farm team before moving to the KHL.
Grade: A
FLORIDA PANTHERS
GM: Dale Tallon
What happened?: A disaster, that’s what. Dale Tallon had just regained the GM chair after a year in exile and, while he was gone, the Panthers management regime signed Reilly Smith to a five-year extension worth $25 million that was due to kick in for the 2017-18 season. Tallon had no interest in paying that contract out to Smith, so he was left unprotected. So was Jonathan Marchessault, who had scored 30 goals the previous season and was making just $750,000, with one year left on his deal. But the Panthers also knew he would be up for a big payday. Vegas took Marchessault in the expansion draft and traded a fourth-round pick to get Smith.
The result: Remember how we said off the start that other teams gifted the Golden Knights a Stanley Cup contender? Well, none of them was more generous than the Panthers. Both Marchessault and Smith clicked instantly with former Panthers coach Gerard Gallant and their careers took off. In the four seasons with Vegas, the two have combined for 417 points.
Grade: F (again, because there is no lower grade to give them)
LOS ANGELES KINGS
GM: Rob Blake
What happened?: Just a couple of months into the job, Blake opted to go the eight skater, one goalie route, which allowed him to protect four defensemen, including Derek Forbort. He did not elect to protect Brayden McNabb, whom the Golden Knights selected.
The result: McNabb and Forbort have both basically been third-pair defensemen since then. Vegas likely would have had the same success with either one.
Grade: C
MINNESOTA WILD
GM: Chuck Fletcher
What happened?: To be fair, Fletcher’s hands were somewhat tied in that he was forced to protect Zach Parise, Mikko Koivu, Jason Pominville and Ryan Suter because of their no-move clauses. Fletcher was loathe to part with either of young defenseman Matt Dumba or veteran center Eric Staal, so he traded Alex Tuch to the Golden Knights in exchange for Vegas taking Erik Haula.
The result: Haula exploded for 55 points in his first season with Vegas and Tuch has been a consistent producer for the Golden Knights for four seasons. Would the Wild have been better off if Fletcher had not done the side deal and the Knights had taken, say, Dumba? Discuss among yourselves.
Grade: D-
MONTREAL CANADIENS
GM: Marc Bergevin
What happened?: Bergevin did have some difficult decisions to make and opted to leave pending unrestricted free agents Alexander Radulov and veteran defenseman Andrei Markov unprotected. The Golden Knights opted for 31-year-old defenseman Alexei Emelin.
The result: The Golden Knights immediately dealt Emelin to the Nashville Predators for a third-round pick in 2019. Emelin played one season for the Predators, then went to the KHL. Markov went to the KHL immediately and Radulov signed with the Dallas Stars.
Grade: B+
NASHVILLE PREDATORS
GM: David Poile
What happened?: Coming off their first-ever appearance in the Stanley Cup final, the Predators were in a bit of a bind. Poile had to go eight skaters, one goalie in order to protect his core of Roman Josi, P.K. Subban, Mattias Ekholm and Ryan Ellis (although, in retrospect, that would have been the perfect time to get rid of Subban). James Neal was left unprotected. Again, looking in retrospect, losing Ryan Johansson would have been the perfect scenario, but he had just come off a 61-point season and a strong playoff. We get it.
The result: Neal scored 25 goals for the Golden Knights and contributed 11 points in 20 playoff games before signing as a free agent with the Calgary Flames. Very safe to say that since then, things have, um, not gone well.
Grade: B
NEW JERSEY DEVILS
GM: Ray Shero
What happened?: The Devils were coming off a 27th overall finish and had won the draft lottery. So you can imagine the pickings were slim. The Devils also went eight skaters, one goalie, which left goalies Keith Kinkaid and Scott Wedgewood exposed. They also left defenseman Jon Merrill exposed and he was taken by the Golden Knights.
The result: For three seasons, Merrill was for the Golden Knights what he has been his entire career: a serviceable depth defenseman.
Grade: A
NEW YORK ISLANDERS
GM: Garth Snow
What happened?: This is one of those scenarios where doing a side deal actually benefitted the team making the deal. In fact, this one was a boon to both sides. Partly because he was forced to protect Andrew Ladd and Johnny Boychuk because of their no-move clauses, Snow had to leave the likes of Brock Nelson, Josh Bailey and Ryan Strome unprotected. So, he sent a first-rounder in 2017, a second-rounder in 2019, Mikhail Grabovski and Jake Bischoff to the Golden Knights in exchange for taking goalie Jean-Francois Berube.
The result: A great one for both teams. The Islanders kept their young players and shed a $5 million cap commitment by trading Grabovski. Bischoff has been in the organization all four years and has appeared in four NHL games. Berube signed with Chicago shortly after the draft and Grabovski had already basically retired. The first-rounder was used to pick defenseman Erik Brannstrom, whom Vegas packaged to Ottawa to get Mark Stone. The third-rounder was packaged for Tomas Tatar, who was in turn part of the package that landed the Golden Knights Max Pacioretty.
Grade: A+
NEW YORK RANGERS
GM: Jeff Gorton
What happened?: The Rangers bought out the contract of defenseman Dan Girardi in order to protect Nick Holden. They went 7-3-1 and one of the more controversial players they protected was Rick Nash, who was coming off his second straight sub-par season.
The result: The Rangers caught a break when the Golden Knights selected Oscar Lindberg, passing over the likes of Jesper Fast and Michael Grabner. Lindberg saw spot duty with the Golden Knights for a season-and-a-half before being dealt to Ottawa as part of the Mark Stone trade.
Grade: B-
OTTAWA SENATORS
GM: Pierre Dorion
What happened?: The Senators were coming off a stunning run to overtime of Game 7 of the Eastern Conference final and had some depth. They left both Bobby Ryan and Clarke MacArthur unprotected, but the Golden Knights took defenseman Marc Methot.
The result: Methot was immediately flipped to Dallas in return for goaltending prospect Dylan Ferguson and a second-round pick in 2020. When the Golden Knights ran into a rash of goaltending injuries in their first year, they were forced to call Ferguson up from junior hockey and he played nine minutes of one game for them.
Grade: B+
PHILADELPHIA FLYERS
GM: Ron Hextall
What happened?: This was not a terribly difficult exercise for Hextall, owing to the fact the Flyers had very little depth. Vegas settled on center Pierre-Edouard Bellemare.
The result: Bellemare ended up centering a surprisingly effective and productive fourth line for the Golden Knights for two seasons.
Grade: C-
PITTSBURGH PENGUINS
GM: Jim Rutherford
What happened?: The Penguins had just come off their second consecutive Stanley Cup, and they won it essentially with two No. 1 goalies: Matt Murray and Marc-Andre Fleury. They would not have won the Cup in 2017 without both of them, but one of them had to go. So the Penguins gave the Golden Knights a 2020 second-round pick to take Fleury, who carried a $5.75 million cap hit for the next three seasons.
The result: Pittsburgh gifted the Golden Knights the wrong guy, plain and simple. Fleury became the face of the franchise, led Vegas to the Cup final in Year 1 and won the Vezina Trophy in 2021.
Grade: F
ST. LOUIS BLUES
GM: Doug Armstrong
What happened? The Blues basically submitted their list and hoped for the best, and the Golden Knights took David Perron. Fun fact: the Golden Knights could have selected goalie Jordan Binnington, who had yet to establish himself as an NHL starter, but two years later led the Blues to the Stanley Cup.
The result: Perron did in Vegas what he has done his entire career, and that’s produce. After scoring 16 goals and 66 points, Perron was a UFA and signed back with the Blues.
Grade: C
SAN JOSE SHARKS
GM: Doug Wilson
What happened?: Wilson was fairly certain the Golden Knights would not be interested in pursuing future Hall of Famers Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau, who were left unprotected. The Golden Knights went with depth defenseman David Schlemko.
The result: Schlemko was immediately traded to Montreal for a fifth-round pick.
Grade: A
TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING
GM: Steve Yzerman
What happened?: As is the case in 2021, the Lightning were faced with vexing cap issues. So they paid what was thought to be a heavy price, sending a second-round pick in 2017, a fourth-rounder in 2018 and Nikita Gusev to the Golden Knights in exchange for picking up defenseman Jason Garrison’s $4.6 million cap hit. It was a heavy price at the time because Gusev was tearing up the KHL at the time.
The result: Gusev never did live up to the hype and seemed in no hurry to sign with Vegas. The Golden Knights dealt him to New Jersey for a pair of draft picks two years later.
Grade: B
TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS
GM: Lou Lamoriello
What happened?: Nothing to see here. The Leafs had zero depth beyond their core and the Golden Knights took prospect Brendan Leipsic, who had put up two very solid seasons in the minors.
The result: Leipsic was a part-time player for the Golden Knights for a year before being dealt to Vancouver.
Grade: B+
VANCOUVER CANUCKS
GM: Jim Benning
What happened?: In Vancouver, Loui Eriksson had just completed the first year of his colossally bad contract. The Canucks would have loved to expose him in the expansion draft, but the first two years of that colossally bad contract carried a full no-move squad. But the Canucks still did OK. They lopped $3.6 million off their cap when the Knights took defenseman Luca Sbisa.
The result: Sbisa played one season in Vegas before signing with the New York Islanders as a free agent.
Grade: B-
WASHINGTON CAPITALS
GM: Brian MacLellan
What happened?: If the Capitals had gone eight players, one goalie, they might have been able to protect defenseman Nate Schmidt, along with John Carlson, Matt Niskanen and Dmitri Orlov. That would have meant they likely would have had to expose one of Lars Eller, Andre Burakovsky or Marcus Johansson. Anyway, the Golden Knights took Schmidt, who was really coming into his own as an NHL defenseman.
The result: Schmidt was an enormous part of the early success the Golden Knights enjoyed. He finished second among defensemen in points in the team’s first season and proved to be a valuable contributor in all situations over three years in Vegas.
Grade: D-
WINNIPEG JETS
GM: Kevin Cheveldayoff
What happened?: Cheveldayoff managed to get defenseman Tobias Enstrom to waive his no-move clause so he could protect Dustin Byfuglien, Jacob Trouba and Tyler Myers. But he still wanted to keep Enstrom so he swapped the 13th overall pick with the 24th pick, which Vegas had acquired from Columbus, plus he threw in a third-rounder from 2019 to get the Golden Knights to select gritty veteran Chris Thorburn.
The result: Thorburn immediately signed with the St. Louis Blues. But wait, there’s more. Vegas used that 13th overall selection to take Nick Suzuki, whom they later made the centerpiece of the Max Pacioretty trade. With the 24th pick, the Jets took left winger Kristian Vesalainen, who has played 17 career games for them. Just imagine for a minute how good Suzuki would look in a Jets uniform right about now. Enstrom, meanwhile, played one more season in Winnipeg, then finished his career in Sweden.
Grade: F