Proposal: Players other than the expansion draft

[Wentworth9W]

Greetings!

Please let me know if there was a better place to post this or if I did anything wrong. I do believe this is my first topic created on all of HFBoards.

I was having a conversation with a co-worker about the Golden Knights and how it would have been nice had they been given some additional help out of the starting gate aside from access to the expansion draft full of players other teams don't mind losing that much. One interesting topic came up though. There are a bunch of guys who have left the NHL for whatever reason to go play in Europe or in the KHL. Some of them couldn't cut it in the NHL, but others left for other reasons. My question is, will players from European leagues be potentially interested in coming back to play for the Golden Knights, and is there anything that would make that not possible? I know guys like Cheechoo, Dawes, and others who are from NA but have been playing in Europe/Russia could be possibilities -- what about guys like Broc Little or Steve Moses who for whatever reason never really made any type of name for themselves here in NA but are superstars in Europe?

I know players routinely just up and leave the NHL, I assume there is nothing stopping them from doing the same in the other direction to come to the NHL right?

Edit: After rereading my post I just want to clarify that the reason we thought of this as a possibility is the addition of one new team would give those guys who couldn't quite make it on an NHL team before an opportunity just based on the numbers. If there were for instance 31 excellent #2 centers available and just 30 teams then either the player had to settle as a #3c making #3c money and #3c ice time or they could go to Europe and be a #2c there. Now that there are 31 opportunities it would just seem possible that a few of those players could think about coming back this way with those few extra opportunities available.

Thanks for reading!
Jeff.

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[sabresfan65]

I don't know that opening up 23 more NHL jobs will bring a ton of former NHL players back from overseas. There maybe a couple of players that hang on for a couple of more years that are already here in NA due to the new jobs, but most players went to Europe to either go home or because teams weren't interested in them anymore. I don't think that will change much. I think the NHL will get younger with the addition of the Golden Knights.

I do think they will sign a few free agents, and depending on if they plan on stocking a complete AHL team or sharing a team will depend how many AHL contracts they give out.

I hope they can grab a couple of NCAA free agents as they are younger but have had some nice development time, plus only having to sign guys to 2 year ELCs will allow them to weed them out quicker if they don't pan out since there is still a 50 contract limit.

 

[LadyStanley]

Actually, there will be 30+ new North American playing jobs. 23 on the NHL roster, plus perhaps as many as a dozen for the AHL and/or ECHL for depth.

There may be a few guys who come back from Europe to sign to play in Nevada, but guess it would be less than five.


They'll have their 30 players from expansion draft, 7 drafted players. Plus whatever players/assets they get from "future consideration" trades. And all the guys they sign in the free market.

 

[sabresfan65]

Until AHL or ECHL expansion is announced, I can only assume teams will be sharing affiliates so no additional minor league positions will open up. I suppose since the AHL doesn't have a roster limit the team could carry a bigger roster but I doubt it would be that much.

Now if 25 AHL and 25 ECHL jobs open up due to those leagues expanding then more might make the trip back to NA.

 

[Beautvillier]

Don't see guys coming from across the world to play for a team that'll be mediocre this season. A majority of the guys who've left are older, and the only way I see them rejoining a team is if their heading for the cup. Not to mention that Vegas is looking to trade some of the players they select for either two players of lesser value (who combine for more value) or for high picks. They're obviously looking to sign younger talent which could better the future of their club rather than a makeshift KHL/Low-tier NHL team which would end up giving them a much later draft pick and hense creating an even longer start up than what they'll already have to deal with. In my eyes it makes a lot more sense to draft the player who has the most value to his team or a player who could be traded to a different team for young assets. They'd then play young accquired kids to help develop them, as well as gain high picks in the process.

 

[ProspectsFanatic]

Yes, I thought about it too and made the exercise. I quickly realized that ironically those boderline NHLer will probably be the worst fit for LV. Since with how the expansion draft rules work, you will have an abundance of depth players (bottom 6F and bottom 4D) and it will be very hard for those players to crack your lineup. The last thing you want is to be force to put players you claim from other teams on waivers because of a lack of place on your rosters.

 

[fredligh]

Maybe try to lure some talent from the KHL. Gusev, Shipachyov, Dadonov, Kovar, Omark. SHL also yearly export about 5-10 undrafted/no rights players to the NHL every year. Tömmernes, Lindström, Everberg, Sundström, Pilut, Aho fx