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Vegas Golden Knights Expansion Outlook: Detroit Red Wings

By Richard Cardinale |
DETROIT, MI - FEBRUARY 15: Xavier Ouellet #61 of the Detroit Red Wings follows the play against the St. Louis Blues during an NHL game at Joe Louis Arena on February 15, 2017 in Detroit, Michigan. The Blues defeated the Wings 2-1. (Photo by Dave Reginek/NHLI via Getty Images)
DETROIT, MI - FEBRUARY 15: Xavier Ouellet #61 of the Detroit Red Wings follows the play against the St. Louis Blues during an NHL game at Joe Louis Arena on February 15, 2017 in Detroit, Michigan. The Blues defeated the Wings 2-1. (Photo by Dave Reginek/NHLI via Getty Images)

The Vegas Golden Knights don’t have any appetizing options picking from the Detroit Red Wings.

Vegas Golden Knights General Manger George McPhee might have a hard time picking from this team because the Detroit Red Wings already sold most of its players. Which means more limited choices for the Golden Knights. Detroit sits in dead last in the Atlantic division and their string of 25 straight years of playoffs will end this season.

The Red Wings need to look forward to rebuilding and finding their team identity again. The team has no choice but to build around Tomas Tatar and Dylan Larkin, especially with Henrik Zetterberg approaching his late 30’s. Perhaps prospects like Evgeny Svechnikov and Joe Hicketts will be the team’s building blocks but that remains to be seen.

Detroit will absolutely use the seven Forwards, three Defensemen and one Goaltender system. Reason being, Detroit will have too many young roster players they would expose if they decide to go the other route and pick 8 skaters and a netminder. Players like Svechnikov, Hicketts and Larkin will all be exempt from the expansion draft.

The team goaltending is a tricky situation for the Detroit Red Wings. Petr Mrazek is having an awful year for Detroit posting  a 15-17-7 record with a 3.02 GAA and a .902 save percentage. The second goaltender Jimmy Howard  has played 10 times better than Mrazek has.

The one problem is Howard has been missing almost the entire season with a Right MCL sprain. Howard’s record is only 5-7-1 but owns a 1.96 GAA and a save percentage of .934. Despite having a much worse season than Howard, I expect Mrazek the goalie of choice in Detroit because of the age and contract of Howard.

Howard could be a candidate as the Vegas Golden Knights starting goalie. However, with his cap-hit at $5.291 million, I don’t expect Golden Knights General Manager George McPhee will reach out and pick Howard at the expansion draft.

On the back-end, I see Mike Green as the only lock on defense for the Detroit Red Wings. Green has put all other defenseman on his team to shame by accumulating 10 Goals, 16, Assists and 26 Points. No other defenseman on Detroit’s roster is even close to that number.

The other two defense spots are tossups. The team could decide to go with Niklas Kronwall, but with one more major injury could cost him his career. 27-year old Danny DeKeyser should get himself a spot on the Detroit roster next season. With one spot remaining, I say Kronwall gets it only because Jonathan Ericsson doesn’t have the greatest contract for what he brings to ice on a nightly basis.

It should be pretty easy to see who Detroit will protect at the Forward position. Zetterberg, Tatar, Justin Abdelkader, Andreas Athanasiou, Anthony Mantha and Gustav Nyquist should all fetch protection slots. There’s really no one else on this roster that has done enough offensively to make Red Wings General Manger Ken Holland think otherwise.

McPhee could pick fourth liner Luke Glendening but he has enough of those players he can choose from. He could also pick 26-year old defenseman Nick Jensen, yet he’s very unproven in his rookie year.

All in all, the player I think McPhee will end up with is Xavier Ouellet. The second round pick in 2011 is finally getting his chance at the NHL receiving regular playing time. Ouellet’s stat-line reads only two Goals, nine Assists and 11 Points on the year but that shouldn’t get you discouraged.

Ouellet is still learning in his first near full NHL season and he’s shown some promise in some areas. The 24-year old excels in puck movement and has great mobility from the back-end.

The French defenseman must be able to build strength to fend off to maximize his full potential. He also must get better without the puck in his own zone. Too many times Ouellet left his man wide open this year.

Next: Which Columbus Player Will Be Joining The Vegas Golden Knights Next Season?

I see Xavier Ouellet as a potential gem for the Golden Knights. Giving him more ice time and powerplay time should only increase his confidence as time rolls on. If George McPhee see’s Ouellet unprotected, this is the player he absolutely needs to take.

Golden Knights Prediction: Xavier Ouellet

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