Vegas Golden Knights have choices in the expansion draft, especially picking from the Florida Panthers.
Lets face it. The Vegas Golden Knights aren’t expected to compete for a playoff spot anytime soon. It’ll take time and patience to build a contender for years to come and that’s exactly what the Florida Panthers did. Lets hope it doesn’t take as long!
Florida currently sits in sixth place in the Atlantic division and four points out of a playoff spot. The Panthers are in the middle of assembling a core group of players. Players like Vincent Trocheck, Aleksander Barkov, Jonathan Huberdeau and Aaron Ekblad as the centerpiece are all in that group. Florida Panthers Executive Dale Tallon deserves a ton of the credit to bring this team back to credibility.
The Panthers hope to have players such as Jared McCann, Denis Malgin, Kyle Rau and Michael Matheson as apart of that young collection of talent. Luckily for Florida, the players I just mentioned are exempt from the expansion draft. However, Golden Knights General Manager George McPhee will still have lots of good options to choose.
The Florida Panthers will use the 7-3-1 system as it looks right now. The Panthers are able to protect just the right amount of Forwards with this option The team could however lose a defenseman they don’t want to lose.
There’s no way I see Roberto Luongo getting exposed to Vegas by the time June rolls around. The former Stanley Cup finalist has been much better in recent starts rather than the first half of the season. Overall, Luongo is 17-15-6 with a 2.68 GAA and a .915 save percentage.
James Reimer is putting up an even better season than Luongo, despite playing fewer games. Reimer is 12-10-5 on the year with a GAA of 2.50 and a .919 save percentage. All of that aside, Luongo is the goalie to protect.
If the opposite happens, just imagine Roberto Luongo in Las Vegas. Now that would be entertaining!
On the blue line, the Panthers must protect Keith Yandle due to his no movement clause he signed last offseason. The last two spots will no doubt go to the face of the franchise Aaron Ekblad and the offensively gifted Jason Demers.
It looks easy at Forward as well for the Florida Panthers. Trocheck, Barkov, Huberdeau, Reilly Smith, Jonathan Marchessault, Nick Bjugstad and Jussi Jokinen will all fetch spots on the Panthers protection list. I see no other competition on the roster that would kick anyone of those players off the keeper list.
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So here’s what George McPhee has to work with. McPhee could pick Florida’s team captain Derek MacKenzie but I don’t think he’ll go that route simply because there’s many players like MacKenzie around the league. Thomas Vanek is an interesting option as an unrestricted free agent, but he would likely turn down Vegas to go to a contending team.
The Vegas Golden Knights need to build a solid defense and Defenseman Alex Petrovic would help the new expansion franchise do just that. Petrovic has only played in 33 games this season, but he’s accumulated one Goal, 10 Assists and 11 Points. Not bad numbers at all for a Defenseman.
He’s a tower on the blueline at 6’4 and has great mobility for his size. He’s not afraid to get physical and has strong shutdown qualities to his game. A true stay-at-home Defenseman.
The 25-year old needs to work on putting his game altogether. He also needs to improve his puck-moving ability in the transition game. Petrovic is also a restricted free agent which means he would need to agree to a contract to come and play for the Golden Knights.
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Petrovic isn’t a flashy player by any stretch of the imagination. But what he brings to a defensive core is what the Vegas Golden Knights need right away to compete. McPhee should see a lot of potential in the young Defenseman. Petrovic still has plenty of room to grow and he could fit in a top four role to start the 2017-2018 campaign.
Golden Knights Prediction: Alex Petrovic