Las Vegas Hockey: The Last ‘Might Have Been’ Entry Draft
The 2016 NHL Entry Draft is complete, the last “might have been” draft the Las Vegas NHL Hockey franchise will see. Next year, Bill Foley, George McPhee and whoever minions they bring to the table, they, yes they, will be picking for real.
Prior to next year’s Entry Draft the Las Vegas (Fill in your team name here) will have already stocked 30 bodies into its roster from the 2017 Expansion Draft:
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- The large percentage of bodies likely will be solid second and third line talents
- Perhaps a few speculative youngsters that seem to be under performing their talent with their old team, but might do better in the culture and coaching McPhee hopes to install.
- A smattering of first line veterans who are on the down slope of their careers, where their contracts seem bloated to their former team due to age, injuries or declining production, but players McPhee might think have enough left in the tank and have the locker room leadership a team needs.
In other words, Las Vegas should have a reasonably deep team. With the right crew and the right coach, Las Vegas might be talented enough to fight for a playoff spot. Still, this NHL franchise will be lacking the elite players that could put them over the top and make for a deep drive for the Stanley Cup.
Las Vegas will be situated in third position on the Entry Draft day. High enough to hope to snatch a talent who has the potential to develop quickly and make an impact on the team sooner rather than later.
Picking in the third spot this year, Columbus picked Pierre-Luc DuBois. The 18-year-old is slated as a Left Winger but can play all three forward positions. Good skater, physical (6’2″) and is said to play with an edge. He sounds like the type of guy McPhee says he will be looking for on his Las Vegas roster.
Not to say McPhee would have picked DuBois, of course, but I for one will be watching the young man as he develops. He could have been the one from our first draft if only the process had taken a year less to name an NHL Franchise in Las Vegas.
What might have been…