No they really couldn't.
The Wild were very close to trading 2 D-men when they dealt with Vegas before the freeze. Vegas was better off getting what they got from the Wild than letting the Wild trade away 2 D-men and Vegas ends up with less.
Dumba/Brodin/Scandella were NEVER in play for Vegas to take.
From Russo...
ALMOST a week the deal with Vegas has been done... that means AT LEAST by Friday it was done. Dumba and Scandella being on the exposed list was completely meaningless when the list came out at that point.
Yeah I'm sure Minnesota would go into this season with 3 top 4 D instead of losing one to expansion and still keeping 4.
Also end of the day McPhee could have just grabbed any unprotected player, handshake smandshake this is the real world
I hope we see some more trades today, yesterday was a bit dull
There are three things regarding the draft I don't understand:
1) Why does Vegas select only 3 goalies? It seems to be clear that Fleury-Pickard is their tandem, but what if two get hurt? Will they quickly sign someone like Emery or Labarbera?
Also, not choosing Mrazek is even weirder than Detroit exposing him.
2) A 2nd rd pick from PIT to make sure they select Fleury? Why did they want to ged rid of him so badly? Cap space?
3) Why does McPhee trade for so many 2017 picks? If I were him, I'd have asked for 2018 picks, as that seems to be the better class. Or is he simply hoping to flip a couple players at next year's deadline?
Methot's no trade includes all the Canadian teams except Ottawa.
What a loser.
1. They evaluated the market and determined from consultations with other GMs that the asset other teams would offer the most in trade for were defensemen, so they used all their 'extra' selection spots on defensemen. There's still a whole summer's worth of trades and free agent signings they can use to shore up goaltending depth. If they weren't worth much to draft+trade they also won't be worth much to acquire, should they even need to negotiate with a team rather than just UFAs and their agents.
2. Murray is the starting goalie in PIT now. Fleury was going to be the backup despite being paid like a starter and wanting to be a starter. This gives everyone what they want - Vegas gets a proven starter, Fleury gets to play as a starter, Murray gets to play as an uncontested starter, and Pittsburgh has the freed cap space from the Fleury contract to improve/maintain their team elsewhere. And Pittsburgh avoids losing a skater from their cup Champion team.
3. Other teams were clearly hesitant to move picks further in the future. Between uncertainty about the strength of the future drafts and uncertainty about their pick slot in those drafts, a premium was being placed on picks in future years, and as such there likely wasn't a case of GMGM being able to say "Give me your2018 1st instead of 2017, at the same terms". The teams would come back with "We aren't offering our 2018 pick at the same terms. If you want that you'll have to offer a lot more in return."
HmmmRegardless if he was on the table or not, he was exposed. It was either him or Brodin to be exposed. It's nobody's problem but Minnesota's to have traded a defenseman before the trade freeze if they were afraid one were to be exposed.
Vegas got fleeced, plain and simple. Minnesota GM, Fletcher, is a wizard, a genius, and hopefully the winner of the 2017-18 General Manager of the Year Award winner.
Don't worry, somehow Fletcher is now the one that was fleeced by managing to hang onto a 50 pt, 23 year old RD. It is completely impossible that the expansion draft worked out relatively well for both teams.Hmmm