With all of the excitement* surrounding the Las Vegas expansion team this week, many NHL fans may be wondering if their favorite player may be leaving them soon. Many NHL fans may be hoping that their team comes up with the perfect side deal to hold onto the players they want, and disposing of the players they don’t. (*anger)
The problem is, Vegas has incredible leverage and plenty of incentive to use it. Vegas has basically announced that they’ll be open to making deals with every team to shape the expansion draft. Rumors last week swirled that Vegas already have several side deals made and could be sitting on as many as three additional first-round picks in Friday’s amateur draft. That’s also A.) just first-round picks and B.) before the expansion process has even started. So as you can imagine, things can definitely change, and it’s likely Vegas’ stockpile of assets will only increase.
After the expansion lists were announced yesterday, both Giles Ferrell and I drafted the best teams we could for Vegas, and ended up with rosters that wouldn’t strike fear into anyone, but could be a competitive team.
So I gave the Expansion Draft tool on @CapFriendly a try… pic.twitter.com/TzItNa1tNl
— Giles Ferrell (@gilesferrell) June 19, 2017
Here’s my Vegas Draft. No side deals assumed… pic.twitter.com/sbbpeWFF3P
— B Remington(Exposed) (@BenRemington) June 18, 2017
As you can see those teams aren’t good, but it’ll pass as an NHL team, which may not actually fit the plan for GM George McPhee. Vegas is probably looking to be more talent-strapped and draft-pick rich than the rosters you see above, and many agree that’s a sound way to build a winner for the future. While it’s likely most teams might not be interested in cutting side deals to save players, some teams definitely will be, so for Vegas to grow an embarrassment of riches in that department, they’ll need to be shrewd.
One avenue for gaining assets that has been pointed is teams trading for other team’s exposed players. This is a very real issue for Wild fans, as while the Wild can negotiate to a perfect solution with Vegas to prevent them from taking Matt Dumba, but that won’t stop other NHL teams from making a phone call and an offer for him as well. Then Vegas has to weigh the offer from Minnesota, including the player they’d get otherwise, against the offer from another team for Dumba if he were drafted. Needless to say, this could end up as a bidding war type situation, which is bad news for the Wild.
The hold a few cards in that they protected Jason Zucker, who is a PR dream for Vegas to acquire, and Vegas is reportedly high on Gustav Olofsson, who is available for them to pick, if they were bribed into doing so, to hurt the Wild less, so these things could play into the Wild’s favor, if Vegas doesn’t decide to either build around Dumba or flip him or Eric Staal to another team.
Needless to say, the Wild took an incredible risk exposing Dumba, if they do in fact want to keep him around, and the same goes for Staal and Marco Scandella. Side deals may be the hallmark of this expansion draft, but given the opportunities Vegas has at their disposal, the price may be pretty high. Coincidentally enough, this isn’t unlike walking into a casino. You may get what you want, but the setup makes sure the House Always Wins.
