A ****show.
I will never get why Florida ended up protecting any of Bjugstad, Petrovic and Pysyk over Marchessault. By simply swapping JAM and Bjugstad, Vegas would have likely selected a big contract (Demers, Smith, maybe Bjugstad) anyway.
It was pretty widely known Petrovic was going to be taken. Gallant liked him and he was coming off a solid year, also March would not have been included if Vegas was going to take Smith. Like I said in the long post Smith was really bad. A different GM would have allowed Petrovic to be taken and found a way to move Smith with a different incentive, or kept him and hoped for a rebound.
Our board is always fighting but no one is going to argue that in '16-'17 Smith, Demers, and Bjugstad were bad (Demers and Bjugs especially).
If you're Vegas, an expansion team: solid 3rd pairing guy who your coach likes and is cheap
or
inconsistent forward signed long-term at a pretty high salary
McPhee was very lucky as he was going to pick Petro. Florida forced Smith onto his team.
Why would Vegas have been interested in Bjugstad? He's not a crap player but certainly nothing special. He got moved up to serious top 6 minutes this year (even spent some time with Barkov in highlights I watched) and managed 49 points. Not necessarily crap, but hey. Bjugs showed some nice hustle in the clips I watched but he also had some serious problems burying the cookie (unlike Dadonov). 19 goals. Marchessault had 30 last year.
You could make a pretty strong argument that production for $ wise Bjugstad was the worst player in the league in 2017. Rebounded nicely this year but no chance at the time. Same with Demers. Struggled mightily in transition and in his own end all season.