Why are people so upset over losing the 9th/10th-worst players from their teams? If you had made better decisions with your protected lists, Vegas wouldn't be this good.
This is not necessarily the case. The expansion rules were way too favorable especially when you consider expansion drafts of the past. Teams were forced to protect players with "NMC" and "NTC"
Many of those players were ones teams didn't want to protect.
Because of things like that teams had to negotiate trades so that Vegas wouldn't take certain players. Columbus may have made a bad choice or a tough choice for instance but other moves by teams weren't so obvious.
Some teams gave up first rd picks. That sucks for fans. I rather have given up my ninth or tenth best player instead but couldn't. At least the NHL could do is give compensation by way of draft picks to help teams that lost significant talent. I'm not sure what Florida was doing though. J marsh was productive with them.
I really don't think Bettman planned out the draft and the consequences. I doubt he figured Vegas would be a final four team.
I don't want Vegas to win but I don't begrudge their success. McPhee deserves a ton of credit for pushing all the right buttons. Bettman enabled Vegas to compete right away but management knocked it out of the park.
