Vegas Golden Knights Expansion Outlook: New York Islanders

The Vegas Golden Knights have countless options picking from the New York Islanders.

The New York Islanders are one of those teams that are in trouble at the Vegas Golden Knights expansion draft. The overflow of talent on this roster could prove to be very beneficial to Golden Knights General Manger George McPhee. In addition, Islanders General Manager Garth Snow will bribe McPhee with draft picks to not pick certain players.

The Islanders currently sit in the thick of the heated playoff race in the Eastern Conference. New York is one point out of playoff spot with 15 games to go so there is lots of time to gain ground but the team doesn’t have that much margin for error. The Islanders are at where they’re at is because Doug Weight has taken over Jack Capuano’s head Coach position. Under Weight, the team is an impressive 16-7-3 and playing a much more up-tempo game.

The Islanders will have a bunch of young talent already exempt from the expansion draft. Players like Josh Ho-Sang, Anthony Beauvillier, Mathew Barzal and Michael Dal Colle will all be excluded from the expansion draft. However, when you see what New York Islanders are exposing, you will lose your mind.

The protection scheme could go either way for the Islanders. They could try and protect more defensemen but they’ll stand to lose a key forward. And if they go the other direction a key defenseman will go to Vegas. In my opinion, the team from Brooklyn should decide to go with seven Forwards, three Defensemen and one Goaltender.

Thomas Griess will be the guy that gets protected for the New York Islanders. His stats have been very good since being turned the full-time starter in January. Greiss is 23-14-4 with a 2.60m GAA and a .916 save percentage. That leaves both Jaroslav Halak and Jean-Francois Berube unprotected and with the extreme amount of talent on the Islanders roster, I don’t expect McPhee to pull the trigger on either one of these goalies.

Here’s where the situation gets really sticky for Snow. Protecting just three defensemen on a very deep defense core is tough.  Johnny Boychuk and Nick Leddy look to be the guys that the Islanders will protect. Leaving just one defenseman left on the protection list, It’s going to be a gauntlet between Calvin De Haan, Thomas Hickey and Travis Hamonic. In my opinion, I see the Islanders protecting Hickey.

It’s also pretty tough at forward as well for Snow. Andrew Ladd and John Tavares both have no movement clauses so that leaves only five slots left. The team should decide to go with Anders Lee, Ryan Strome, Justin Bailey, Brock Nelson and Casey Cizikas. Those who will be challenging for a spot on the protection list are Jason Chimera, Shane Prince and Nikolai Kulemin.

The Vegas Golden Knights scouting staff and George McPhee will have their hands full on this one. I can literally see Vegas picking any position on this team, that’s how much depth the Islanders have. The team could decide to go with young 24-year-old Shane Prince, but he hasn’t reached 20 points in a single season yet.

The Golden Knights could pick Travis Hamonic who plays 20 minutes a night and he would be a solid addition to the blue line as well. Although he’s not very offensive, he plays against all the top forwards and is a very good shutdown defenseman. However, he’s having a bad year with a -16 plus/minus rating. I don’t think Hamonic will be a Golden Knight next season but he’s definitely a candidate.

The player I think McPhee makes a run after is defenseman Calvin de Haan. The former first round pick is a solid puck moving defenseman and plays very reliable in his own end. In addition to that, de Haan plays nearly 20 minutes every single game and skates extremely hard if he does get burned. This year de Haan has four Goals, 15 Assists, 19 Points and a +10 plus/minus rating.

The Ontario native needs to improve his physical game and needing to use more of his 6’1 frame. He also needs to get stronger to maximize his full NHL potential. If he can improve on those two things, the Vegas Golden Knights got themselves one hell of a defenseman.

Next: Who's Going From The Devils To The Golden Knights?

George McPhee can’t go wrong with the selection of player the Islanders will present to him. But if de Haan is left sitting their unprotected, McPhee needs to pounce all over it. The player is only 25 years old and he’s got so much more room to grow. As a result, If McPhee takes de Haan, he will be a top pairing defenseman to start the 2017-2018 season for the Golden Knights.

Golden Knights Prediction: Calvin de Haan