Las Vegas Roster Impacted By Free Agency

With no jerseys, front office, a name, let alone a roster, Las Vegas hockey is already being affected by other teams, whether intentional or not, and that could be a blessing.

The NHL setup rules for Las Vegas to get a more competitive franchise on day one than in any other expansion draft in the history of the NHL.  With plenty of time before players need to be protected or submitted to the process, there are teams that are already trying to mold their rosters to protect more players than the draft allows for.

Creative use of trades and free agency in 2016, have positioned some teams with the ability to trade away pieces and bring in others, that will allow them to somewhat circumvent the rules on how many players get exposed for the new franchise.

I mean, lets get real, there is absolutely no way, without doing it themselves that the NHL could put rules into play that will ever benefit an expansion team fully, while protecting the work of general managers around the league.

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I mean, you could say that no players can be protected and that the only rules that expansion teams have to follow are the same rules every other team has when it comes to the salary cap.

Hell, at that point, why even bother having trades or general managers at all.  Hold an expansion draft every year, players are assigned a value based solely on their status in the league as a rookie or their performance in the past season – and the team you get on draft day is the team you take into battle all season.

Of course there is no sarcasm font – so I digress back into the real world.  Just like any rule change to try and make the games more interesting, faster, more offensive, savvy coaches and general managers will reshape their plans and rosters so to stifle what the league is really trying to do.

Same thing for the expansion draft.

Sure, right now Las Vegas Hockey is on the receiving end of the expansion draft, and depending on how long before the league decides to expand again and even things out (or make things more convoluted by adding another team in the East) – Las Vegas might be exempt from the next expansion draft.

This expansion draft is going to be interesting, but as we have learned from the great Herb Brooks, it isn’t always about a team of all-stars that is going to win you games.  Can Las Vegas hockey put together the right group of players to make an impact on the standings quickly?  Chemistry goes a long way when it comes to an NHL locker room.