Looking back at Vegas Expansion Draft Trades

[MosTLucky]

Wow I haven’t really looked back at the 2017 expansion draft since it happened, but holy. Vegas acquired top line players WITH first and second round picks attached to them. Well done Vegas, huge props to McPhee and crew.

 

[thestonedkoala]

The Minnesota Wild traded Alex Tuch in exchange for Vegas selecting Erik Haula and a conditional third-round pick in the 2017 or 2018 NHL Entry Draft.

McPhee should have been fired for not selecting Kaprizov over Tuch as he had the option to do so.

More so, Haula isn't even in Vegas anymore. Minnesota got a serviceable depth player in Connor Dewar from the Knights, so Minnesota did fine in this. They lost Tuch, which hurt - but it could have been a lot worse for them.

 

[Simplicity]

McPhee should have been fired for not selecting Kaprizov over Tuch as he had the option to do so.

More so, Haula isn't even in Vegas anymore. Minnesota got a serviceable depth player in Connor Dewar from the Knights, so Minnesota did fine in this. They lost Tuch, which hurt - but it could have been a lot worse for them.

Tuch leads the playoffs in Successful Controlled Entries. He is a good player.

 

[Wallet Inspector]

Defend these trades any way you want but none of the GM's who made the following trades with Vegas should still be employed.

• The Anaheim Ducks traded Shea Theodore in exchange for Vegas selecting Clayton Stoner.[19]
• The Minnesota Wild traded Alex Tuch in exchange for Vegas selecting Erik Haula and a conditional third-round pick in the 2017 or 2018 NHL Entry Draft.[20]
• The Columbus Blue Jackets traded their first-round pick in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft, a second-round pick in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft and David Clarkson in exchange for Vegas selecting William Karlsson.[21]
• The Pittsburgh Penguins traded their second-round pick in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft in exchange for Vegas selecting Marc-Andre Fleury.[22]

IIRC Minnesota traded Tuch in order to keep their top 4 D intact. I think that's justified.

 

[Brownies]

That was some nasty scouting by the Knights. What a story !

 

[SwedishFire]

With the upcoming Seattle expansion draft, I'm curious to look back at the 10 pre-expansion draft deals that Vegas made. We know that most of these trades backfired spectacularly on the teams that made them - did any of these deals work out well for teams besides Vegas? Who were the players that these teams were trying to protect Vegas from selecting?

Below is a list of the deals that were made, copied from Wikipedia:

• The Buffalo Sabres traded their sixth-round pick in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft in exchange for Vegas selecting William Carrier.[13]
• The Florida Panthers traded Reilly Smith in exchange for Vegas selecting Jonathan Marchessault and a fourth-round pick in the 2018 NHL Entry Draft.[14]
• The Carolina Hurricanes traded Boston's fifth-round pick in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft (previously acquired) in exchange for Vegas selecting Connor Brickley.[15]
• The Winnipeg Jets traded their first-round pick (13th overall) in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft and a third-round pick in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft in exchange for Vegas selecting Chris Thorburn and Columbus' first-round pick (24th overall) in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft (previously acquired by Vegas).[16]
• The Tampa Bay Lightning traded their second-round pick in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft, Pittsburgh's fourth-round pick in the 2018 NHL Entry Draft (previously acquired) and Nikita Gusev in exchange for Vegas selecting Jason Garrison.[17]
• The New York Islanders traded their first-round pick in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft, a second-round pick in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft, Mikhail Grabovski and Jake Bischoff in exchange for Vegas selecting Jean-Francois Berube.[18]
• The Anaheim Ducks traded Shea Theodore in exchange for Vegas selecting Clayton Stoner.[19]
• The Minnesota Wild traded Alex Tuch in exchange for Vegas selecting Erik Haula and a conditional third-round pick in the 2017 or 2018 NHL Entry Draft.[20]
• The Columbus Blue Jackets traded their first-round pick in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft, a second-round pick in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft and David Clarkson in exchange for Vegas selecting William Karlsson.[21]
• The Pittsburgh Penguins traded their second-round pick in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft in exchange for Vegas selecting Marc-Andre Fleury.[22]

How come it took Hurricanes obly a low pick for Vegas to select a complete useless player, but Winnipeg a first rounder + another pick for selecting Thoburn?? Doesnt even out

 

[ES]

How come it took Hurricanes obly a low pick for Vegas to select a complete useless player, but Winnipeg a first rounder + another pick for selecting Thoburn?? Doesnt even out

Jets one was not really 1st rounder, it was swap of 1st rounders.

13th for 24th.

Regarding Minnesota Wild, I understood that Haula was a player McPhee really wanted, even though on paper there were probably better players available. Knowing that, McPhee agreed to pick Haula if he gets prospect with him.

 

[LakeLivin]

Seems like the best deal so far, giving up a 6th & a 4th liner (who in all fairness is still playing on a stacked Vegas team) in order to protect a goalie that would go on to be their starter.

Carolina was the other team to make a minor deal (mid-round pick) - looking at the roster it appears that they may have been trying to protect Cam Ward, who was still their starter at that point, but 33 years old and only had one year left on his deal. They had also acquired Scott Darling by that point to take over in net. Not sure who else they would look to protect and the low cost would make sense.

How come it took Hurricanes obly a low pick for Vegas to select a complete useless player, but Winnipeg a first rounder + another pick for selecting Thoburn?? Doesnt even out

My take at the time was that due to exemptions and a really shallow talent pool the best player available from Carolina was Lee Stempniak. He was pretty good the prior season and the Canes were really shallow at right wing, but at 34 yo he wouldn't have had much value at all to Vegas, hence Connor Brickley. I'm guessing Winnipeg was at risk of losing a much more valuable player hence the much higher price.

 

[gwh]

Looking back at the players available in the expansion draft. Why we get the team stolen by a scummy team trading dirtbag and then get megashafted with the expansion draft?

Jeez, at least the league learned how to gift roster to the new teams.

 

[Skinnyjimmy08]

I love how at the time of all this happening that everyone in the hockey world and people on here were heavily criticizing VGK and laughing at how horrible of a job they did...

Man they took a ton of heat.. it was awful

 

[Tryamw]

My take at the time was that due to exemptions and a really shallow talent pool the best player available from Carolina was Lee Stempniak. He was pretty good the prior season and the Canes were really shallow at right wing, but at 34 yo he wouldn't have had much value at all to Vegas, hence Connor Brickley. I'm guessing Winnipeg was at risk of losing a much more valuable player hence the much higher price.

That's also my recollection. Most of our better players were exempt and those we exposed were about as exciting as flat soda

 

[deckercky]

I love how at the time of all this happening though that everyone in the hockey world and people on here were heavily criticizing VGK and laughing at how horrible of a job they did...

Now people are saying it wasn't fair everywhere lol

Yup. Before game 1, there was a lot of criticism of McPhee for not getting more (or not just taking the best asset available). Honestly, there's a huge amount of luck in some of Vegas' success. Karlsson's mother didn't believe he was a first line talent until midway through the inaugural season. Minnesota was going to lose a good piece regardless.

Florida move was bad day 1 - Give up Smith, who at worst was a tweener (but more likely a second line talent) and Marchessault, a 30 goal scorer making league minimum?

Subsequent development (and lack of development) made Anaheim's move look a lot worse.

 

[StreetHawk]

I think looking back on it, a lot of teams overvalued their situation.

Ducks were coming off a WCF appearance vs Nashville. They have a top 4 D of Fowler, Lindholm, Manson, Vatanen and have youngster Montour who outplayed Theodore a then 22 year old at the time.

But, their 2003 draft class group of Getzlaf, Perry, Kesler, Eaves were all 32 in 2017. So, their decline was coming.

But, Murray made the call to push in thinking the team had 2 more legit cracks at the cup and went for it rather than sacrifice one of his veteran Dmen.

Well, the decline occured after 2018 when they made the playoffs as they have been on a steady decline since in the past 3 seasons.

Minnesota, I think that they had made the trade for Hanzel and with their D of Suter, Dumba, Brodin, Spurgeon, Scandella, along with their forwards of Koivu, Parise, Staal, etc. they felt that they could make a push, but it didn't pan out for them either.

So, unless you are TB, Pitt (on the last legs of Sid/Geno), Colorado, and like Carolina, there isn't a point in giving up good assets to protect your 4th/5th best eligible Dman or your 5th or 8th best eligible Forward.

 

[Skinnyjimmy08]

Yup. Before game 1, there was a lot of criticism of McPhee for not getting more (or not just taking the best asset available). Honestly, there's a huge amount of luck in some of Vegas' success. Karlsson's mother didn't believe he was a first line talent until midway through the inaugural season. Minnesota was going to lose a good piece regardless.

Florida move was bad day 1 - Give up Smith, who at worst was a tweener (but more likely a second line talent) and Marchessault, a 30 goal scorer making league minimum?

Subsequent development (and lack of development) made Anaheim's move look a lot worse.

That expansion season I went to Yotes home opener VS Vegas... it was easily the worst pro hockey game I've ever seen... I thought VGK was going to be absolutely horrendous