News Article: Grading Golden Knights' Expansion Draft

[Sheng Peng]

Team-by-team breakdowns and grades of George McPhee's Expansion Draft moves:

Part 1: From Anaheim to Dallas
Part 2: From Detroit to New York
Part 3: From Ottawa to Winnipeg
Part 4: Final Thoughts

Click to read more...

 

[Soundgarden]

Thanks for doing this write-up.

I feel like Colorado, Minnesota, Nashville, Washington and Winnipeg should have gotten higher grades.

Pickard and Neal were the obvious picks, I don't see how you could have improved on them.
Dumba was never really an option, so getting both Tuch and Haula was a pretty good haul.

 

[keon]

It was a really good article.

 

[Sheng Peng]

Pickard and Neal were the obvious picks, I don't see how you could have improved on them.
Dumba was never really an option, so getting both Tuch and Haula was a pretty good haul.

Like I mentioned in my Final Thoughts, solid but obvious picks garnered no better than a B from me.

As for Dumba, can you source that? Not trying to be confrontational, I've just heard that stated in a few places, but I haven't seen anything more concrete.

It was a really good article.

Thanks!

 

[BattleBorn]

Like I mentioned in my Final Thoughts, solid but obvious picks garnered no better than a B from me.

As for Dumba, can you source that? Not trying to be confrontational, I've just heard that stated in a few places, but I haven't seen anything more concrete.



Thanks!

There's really not much that's going to be concrete other than saying they got "considerations." If you play it out in real time, there's not really many other explanations.

 

[Soundgarden]

Like I mentioned in my Final Thoughts, solid but obvious picks garnered no better than a B from me.

As for Dumba, can you source that? Not trying to be confrontational, I've just heard that stated in a few places, but I haven't seen anything more concrete.



Thanks!

I believe the deal was completed during the period where teams could still deal with each other. I don't know if there is any "official" source, but it's been widely speculated that Dumba/Vatanen would be traded if a deal couldn't be made.

 

[GoldenKnight]

Good article!

 

[derriko]

Agreed. Good article. There was 3 or 4 grades I would move up or down a letter, but overall there wasn't much to nitpick outside one...which I will explain later.

I do agree that Engelland was a bad pick as a UFA. While there was a chance he would've stayed in CGY, seeing what they did to their blue line right after he left seems to me like they were probably going to let him walk. Take another asset, and sign Engelland for cash only.

And Detroit. Detroit is in cap hell somehow with a terribad team. Right now they are over the cap and are going to have to make 1-2 moves to even be legal for next season.

McPhee should've extracted a pick or prospect on top of Nosek, or just taken Mrazek.

Pitt and Fluery...I don't get the "face of the franchise" tag people are repeating over and over. The guy is a damn goalie, and far from a star. If he is the face of your franchise that is pathetic to be brutally honest.

I would've went with Rust, and chosen someone like Mrazek, Grubaeur, Raanta, Subban, etc along with Pickard. I would've rather went with two backup / fringe starters who would push each other for the starting role, and all are much younger, and fit the team's competitiveness timeline much better. Not mad about Fleury, but in no way should that be an "A" grade.

 

[Soundgarden]

Pitt and Fluery...I don't get the "face of the franchise" tag people are repeating over and over. The guy is a damn goalie, and far from a star. If he is the face of your franchise that is pathetic to be brutally honest.

I would've went with Rust, and chosen someone like Mrazek, Grubaeur, Raanta, Subban, etc along with Pickard. I would've rather went with two backup / fringe starters who would push each other for the starting role, and all are much younger, and fit the team's competitiveness timeline much better. Not mad about Fleury, but in no way should that be an "A" grade.

Fleury may be a goalie, but he's the most recognizable name we have and from everything I've seen looks like he's more than happy to be here, heck he's going on NBC to market our new team.
It might be pathetic, but this is our first year we're supposed to be a little pathetic, Fleury is the face of our franchise. If we won the lottery and there were a McDavid or Matthews it would be a different story, but those are the breaks.

Doing a 1a/1b tandem was one of the ideas I floated around here pre-expansion draft, and depending on who we chose it could have worked out great, but we're going to be giving up a lot of rubber these first few years and someone experienced like Fleury can come in and get lit up and it won't destroy him as much as someone who's only split time as a back-up.

Oh, and Subban is trending towards bust territory per Boston fans I think we have someone with similar upside and likelihood of reaching it in Oscar Dansk.

 

[uncleben]

The Dallas analysis seems a little disconnected...

Best "Win Now" Pick: Cody Eakin
Best "Build For The Future" Pick: Cody Eakin
Who McPhee Picked: Cody Eakin
Grade: C

 

[Curufinwe]

Good articles.