Confirmed with Link: Emelin to Nashville for a 3rd

[Soundgarden]

I hate how a lot of fans are so trigger happy to move players like March, Neal, and Perron.

If it was up to me, I would play them for a couple of months and show the the culture, city, etc. and ask if they were interested in multi year extensions.

If they weren't, that would be the only reason I would move them.

The team can't lose every single good player on the team for futures or they will go 0-82 next year.

If that happened to any other team than the Maple Laffs, the team would go bankrupt.

I don't see many people advocating for moving March, but in regards to Neal and Perron they can easily get a 1st + a good prospect from contenders/pretenders at the deadline. They're both about to be 30 as well, I figure the majority of our core of players that should be untouchable probably haven't even been drafted.

I'd be for re-signing one or the other given they want to return and with Gusev coming over next year we can replace Neal/Perron's productivity while getting a great return.

I don't think people realize how much turn over new teams have the first couple years, it's going to be pretty constant stocking and restocking the talent pool until we get a good core.

 

[airbus220]

The team can't lose every single good player on the team for futures

Especially when those futures will likely never be as good as that player.
With the lottery like it is now tanking makes no sense.
I would keep a good player instead of throwing him away for peanuts. Always need to be patient to wait for a good offer.

 

[Blue Goose]

I hate how a lot of fans are so trigger happy to move players like March, Neal, and Perron.

If it was up to me, I would play them for a couple of months and show the the culture, city, etc. and ask if they were interested in multi year extensions.

If they weren't, that would be the only reason I would move them.

The team can't lose every single good player on the team for futures or they will go 0-82 next year.

If that happened to any other team than the Maple Laffs, the team would go bankrupt.

You might not want to hear it, but that's EXACTLY how expansion teams are built. Especially in the cap era. I don't want to be the Thrashers or Blue Jackets - I want to be the 1972 NY Islanders. They showed that by building an expansion team with futures, you can become good in a few seasons, great in 5-7 seasons and championship caliber within a decade.

What's happening here is that too many fans were completely captivated by the protected lists and expansion draft rules and immediately saw how great this team could be in Year 1. The problem is that this method is NOT sustainable, and we'd be a middling franchise with an average prospect pool if we'd gone that route.

We got to take 30 free players in the exp draft, but we can only keep 23 of them (22 since we signed Ship). Instead of simply drafting a bunch of guys and letting them go through waivers, GMGM decided to turn those 8 spots that we CANNOT use and accumulate picks/prospects. He's thinking long-term, and it's awesome that Foley is letting him do it this way. My guess is that Foley saw what the Flyers spent the last two decades doing: avoiding a proper rebuild in hopes of giving Snider one more Cup before he passed away, and the results were not good (meanwhile, Pittsburgh and Chicago won multiple Cups by bottoming out).

I don't see many people advocating for moving March, but in regards to Neal and Perron they can easily get a 1st + a good prospect from contenders/pretenders at the deadline. They're both about to be 30 as well, I figure the majority of our core of players that should be untouchable probably haven't even been drafted.

I'd be for re-signing one or the other given they want to return and with Gusev coming over next year we can replace Neal/Perron's productivity while getting a great return.

I don't think people realize how much turn over new teams have the first couple years, it's going to be pretty constant stocking and restocking the talent pool until we get a good core.

Exactly. Year 1 is going to be ugly, while we shed our roster of all of those guys we took in the expansion draft who had expiring contracts. To me, Year 2 is going to be fascinating. That team is going to feature a group of 21-28 year old players ALL trying to carve out a niche in the league, and the competition will be fierce. We'll still be lousy - and more than likely miss the playoffs - but we'll find out which guys are going to be long-term Knights that will be integral parts of the team as we get good. Ship, Bellemare and Fleury could be the only players over 30 on that roster!

 

[airbus220]

What's happening here is that too many fans were completely captivated by the protected lists and expansion draft rules and immediately saw how great this team could be in Year 1. The problem is that this method is NOT sustainable, and we'd be a middling franchise with an average prospect pool if we'd gone that route.

we can only keep 23 of them (22 since we signed Ship). thinking long-term

Then don't LIE and tell they want to be competitive from the start. It's not my fault to be disappointed after their blah blah blah and amateur mistakes.

How can Fleury be a long term decision, they had enough time to get rid of him. Instead they couldn't take another young goalie.

Pulkkinen instead of Domingue, my God.
This is from the expansion day, showing the laughingstock they already are:

6.04pm
Watch them pick someone totally inconsequential from us, like Teemu friggin' Pulkkinen.
6.46pm
Crap, are we losing Louie?????
6.51pm
It does seem like Lou to Vegas.
7.20pm
What's better; Domingue+Lindberg or Raanta+Some Coyotes crap? Makes sense they go Domingue. Same goes for Grubauer. They took Schmidt who's a good player. Domingue is the only decent thing we have exposed.
7.32pm
ahahahahahaha
I mean I like Pulkkinen as a player...but there's a good change he'll never make it in the NHL. Stupid pick. Since Pulkkinen is RFA they could have also selected Burmistrov. Thanks Vegas.
7.33pm
Wow, I would have taken Gaudet over him.
I think Pulkkinen isn't gonna make it in the NHL,
7.35pm
Did we pay them to take Teemu instead of Domingue?
7.36pm
Did we have a side deal with Vegas?
7.54pm
Pulkkinen? ah ah, almost feel like Chayka could have extracted a pick from Vegas as they really did not want any of our guys.
8.05pm
lol, pulk. Shows how truly awful our roster was last year.
8.44pm
Right. They need their FA slots to take on players like Pulkkinen
11.35pm
Nooooo not Teemu Pulkkinen! Anyone but him!
...wait, who?

 

[Soundgarden]

Then don't LIE and tell they want to be competitive from the start. It's not my fault to be disappointed after their blah blah blah and amateur mistakes.

How can Fleury be a long term decision, they had enough time to get rid of him. Instead they couldn't take another young goalie.

Pulkkinen instead of Domingue, my God.
This is from the expansion day, showing the laughingstock they already are:

Oh my god dude, you have to stop with the negativity because it gets old really quick, we haven't even played a game yet.

1. Fleury isn't a long term decision, he's just a stop gap who's still young enough to steal a game. I honestly have no idea how you can hate that decision, it's not like we were ever going to get a shot at Matt Murray or something. The fact is he's a semi-household name and he actually wants to be here, he's the face of our franchise.

2. There are going to be a lot of moves that you don't like, that's just the way it is. I can guarantee you that neither Pulkkinen or Dominque will be a part of our team by the time we reach the playoff. They're waiver fodder from Arizona.

3. We might not be competing for the playoffs this year, but we will still be competitive by playing a lot of 1-0, 2-1 games. We may be on the losing side of the majority of them, but we will still should be competitive night in and night out.

 

[Vegas Mac]

Then don't LIE and tell they want to be competitive from the start. It's not my fault to be disappointed after their blah blah blah and amateur mistakes.

How can Fleury be a long term decision, they had enough time to get rid of him. Instead they couldn't take another young goalie.

Pulkkinen instead of Domingue, my God.
This is from the expansion day, showing the laughingstock they already are:

6.04pm
Watch them pick someone totally inconsequential from us, like Teemu friggin' Pulkkinen.
6.46pm
Crap, are we losing Louie?????
6.51pm
It does seem like Lou to Vegas.
7.20pm
What's better; Domingue+Lindberg or Raanta+Some Coyotes crap? Makes sense they go Domingue. Same goes for Grubauer. They took Schmidt who's a good player. Domingue is the only decent thing we have exposed.
7.32pm
ahahahahahaha
I mean I like Pulkkinen as a player...but there's a good change he'll never make it in the NHL. Stupid pick. Since Pulkkinen is RFA they could have also selected Burmistrov. Thanks Vegas.
7.33pm
Wow, I would have taken Gaudet over him.
I think Pulkkinen isn't gonna make it in the NHL,
7.35pm
Did we pay them to take Teemu instead of Domingue?
7.36pm
Did we have a side deal with Vegas?
7.54pm
Pulkkinen? ah ah, almost feel like Chayka could have extracted a pick from Vegas as they really did not want any of our guys.
8.05pm
lol, pulk. Shows how truly awful our roster was last year.
8.44pm
Right. They need their FA slots to take on players like Pulkkinen
11.35pm
Nooooo not Teemu Pulkkinen! Anyone but him!
...wait, who?

I'm guessin you're a hoot at parties.

 

[Blue Goose]

There are going to be a lot of moves that you don't like, that's just the way it is. I can guarantee you that neither Pulkkinen or Dominque will be a part of our team by the time we reach the playoff. They're waiver fodder from Arizona.

I can all-but-guarantee that 80-90% of our expansion picks will not be in Vegas when we start making the playoffs on a consistent basis - and that would be in line with virtually EVERY other expansion team that came before. I'm guessing that a lot of the "Vegas fans" who are thoroughly disappointed by McPhee's moves so far must not be overly familiar with the inaugural seasons of those expansion teams from the 90's/00's. And now that this mediocrity is happening directly to them (instead of another team like the Sharks, Thrashers, Panthers, etc), they're getting hurt feelings and are "disappointed". Honestly, if this is the how some Vegas fans feel, they're going to be REALLY upset during these first 2-3 seasons. I, on the other hand, would rather remain positive and optimistic about the long-term success of this franchise - why get upset?

 

[Soundgarden]

I can all-but-guarantee that 80-90% of our expansion picks will not be in Vegas when we start making the playoffs on a consistent basis - and that would be in line with virtually EVERY other expansion team that came before. I'm guessing that a lot of the "Vegas fans" who are thoroughly disappointed by McPhee's moves so far must not be overly familiar with the inaugural seasons of those expansion teams from the 90's/00's. And now that this mediocrity is happening directly to them (instead of another team like the Sharks, Thrashers, Panthers, etc), they're getting hurt feelings and are "disappointed". Honestly, if this is the how some Vegas fans feel, they're going to be REALLY upset during these first 2-3 seasons. I, on the other hand, would rather remain positive and optimistic about the long-term success of this franchise - why get upset?

I've been a fan of Nashville since I moved there from Seattle in '00 so I'm used to those early expansion years. Turnover and cast offs on an expansion team are just the way it is, so you might not want to customize any jerseys.

 

[Mike Jones]

I've been a fan of Nashville since I moved there from Seattle in '00 so I'm used to those early expansion years. Turnover and cast offs on an expansion team are just the way it is, so you might not want to customize any jerseys.

Unless you put Future Considerations on the back where the names usually go.

 

[Puckrobber]

As a new Knights fan (along with my Kings), I'm fully aware of, and accept, that this year & next will be rough years for the team. Every expansion team goes through it. When the team first did the Expansion Draft, I was both pleased with some picks, and confused on others. But, I knew there was a method behind GMGM's madness. A few days later, we saw some picks moved for future "hopefuls", because we had an abundance of talented players, but not enough spots. Every team starting out does this.

Whether or not we win the Cup in 6-7 years, I would just like to see VGK grow with success over time. More in the vein of the Wild, who had ups & downs, but, now are legitimate playoff contenders every year. I would love it if Las Vegas was able to match what L.A. did when Dean Lombardi took over as GM. Have a team that was entertaining, but, unsuccessful for several years, allowing them to get excellent draft picks such as Brown, Doughty & Kopitar. Then, have the chemistry mesh together enough to win 2 Cups in 3 years.

Whatever it takes for the Knights to be successful, I'm all in!

 

[BattleBorn]

As a new Knights fan (along with my Kings), I'm fully aware of, and accept, that this year & next will be rough years for the team. Every expansion team goes through it. When the team first did the Expansion Draft, I was both pleased with some picks, and confused on others. But, I knew there was a method behind GMGM's madness. A few days later, we saw some picks moved for future "hopefuls", because we had an abundance of talented players, but not enough spots. Every team starting out does this.

Whether or not we win the Cup in 6-7 years, I would just like to see VGK grow with success over time. More in the vein of the Wild, who had ups & downs, but, now are legitimate playoff contenders every year. I would love it if Las Vegas was able to match what L.A. did when Dean Lombardi took over as GM. Have a team that was entertaining, but, unsuccessful for several years, allowing them to get excellent draft picks such as Brown, Doughty & Kopitar. Then, have the chemistry mesh together enough to win 2 Cups in 3 years.

Whatever it takes for the Knights to be successful, I'm all in!

That's a great attitude to have, and one that I share now.

As difficult as it's going to be, I think we've got to hold off judgement on the success of the expansion draft and subsequent moves for a year or two. There's a plan in place, and while individual moves may seem a little weird, I'm pretty sure it all comes together as part of the plan.

It's like a business with a three year plan, they might make (what seems like) a crappy move, but if the plan is solid it should pay off.

Walgreens was once a restaurant company. When they realized the way to be most successful was to sell off the restaurants and concentrate on convenient drug stores, their entire world changed and they ended up a lot more successful than if they'd have remained a restaurant company. However, while they were going through the process, there were a lot of people that said they were making a horrible mistake by selling off their core business. It all worked out in the end.

 

[Puckrobber]

That's a great attitude to have, and one that I share now.

As difficult as it's going to be, I think we've got to hold off judgement on the success of the expansion draft and subsequent moves for a year or two. There's a plan in place, and while individual moves may seem a little weird, I'm pretty sure it all comes together as part of the plan.

It's like a business with a three year plan, they might make (what seems like) a crappy move, but if the plan is solid it should pay off.

Walgreens was once a restaurant company. When they realized the way to be most successful was to sell off the restaurants and concentrate on convenient drug stores, their entire world changed and they ended up a lot more successful than if they'd have remained a restaurant company. However, while they were going through the process, there were a lot of people that said they were making a horrible mistake by selling off their core business. It all worked out in the end.

Exactly, BB! I look at sports teams for not only what they can do now, but also what they can do in the future. Yes, the Knights have some great (current) players such as, Neal, Fleury & Marchessault. However, those players are getting older, and probably won't be around forever. VGK does, however, have some future top-end talent in guys like Schmidt, Theodore, Tuch & Pickard, who could be NHL studs if the stars align right. Plus, they're young enough to grow with the team and be a part of that success. (Not to mention all the young kids we drafted/signed this year.)

Win some, lose some, but, always look to the future and see how bright it could be.......