How opposing GMs gifted Vegas the winningest team in hockey at the expansion draft:
Bad Trades
⢠Anaheim traded Vegas Shea Theodore so they take on Clayton Stoner's $3.25m x 1y contract.
⢠Minnesota traded Vegas Alex Tuch so they would pick up Erik Haula instead of Matt Dumba or Eric Staal.
⢠Pittsburgh traded Vegas a 2nd round pick (Drew Commesso) so they would take on Marc-Andre Fleury's $5.75m x 3y contract.
⢠NY Islanders traded Vegas the 15th overall pick (Erik Brannstrom) and a 2nd round pick (Egor Sokolov) so they would take on Mikhail Grabovski's $5m x 1y contract.
⢠Tampa Bay traded Vegas Nikita Gusev, a 2nd round pick (Alex Texier) and a 4th round pick (Paul Cotter) so would take on Jason Garrison's $4.6m x 1y contract
⢠Winnipeg traded the 13th overall pick (Nick Suzuki) for the 24th overall pick so Vegas wouldn't select Tobias Enstrom.
Bad Protections
⢠Boston protected Kevan Miller over Colin Miller.
⢠Los Angeles protected Derek Forbort over Brayden McNabb.
⢠St. Louis protected Sobotka, Berglund, Reaves over David Perron and Jordan Binnington.
Bad Everything
⢠Florida traded them Reilly Smith for a 4th round pick, left Jonathan Marchessault exposed, while protecting Alex Petrovic & Mark Pysyk.
⢠Columbus traded them a 1st & 2nd round pick so they would take on David Clarkson's $5.25m x 3y contract. Then they exposed 43-goal scorer William Karlsson.
In total, they finessed:
⢠Shea Theodore
⢠Jonathan Marchessault
⢠William Karlsson
⢠Reilly Smith
⢠David Perron
⢠Brayden McNabb
⢠Marc-Andre Fleury
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⢠Alex Tuch (huge part of Jack Eichel package)
⢠Nick Suzuki (huge part of Max Pacioretty package)
⢠Drew Commesso (huge part of Robin Lehner package)
⢠Colin Miller (huge part of Alec Martinez package)
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⢠Erik Brannstrom & Egor Sokolov (became Mark Stone)
⢠Erik Haula (became Nicolas Roy -> Mitch Marner)
⢠Alex Texier (became Keegan Kolesar)
⢠Nikita Gusev (became Daniil Chayka, Lukas Cormier, and Jakub Demek)
⢠Paul Cotter (became Alex Holtz, Akira Schmid, and Mason Moe)
The league's got no one to blame but themselves.