The Vegas Golden Knights may need to make a list of players to avoid at the upcoming expansion draft.
Surely Vegas Golden Knights General Manager George McPhee and his staff in the front office are trying to put together a plan for the expansion draft. It’s obvious they want to build good team right out of the gate while also acquiring picks and prospects. But that might be pretty risky especially from an expansion teams point of view.
Let’s say Vegas acquires player X who has a pretty high cap hit with a long-term and they also get a draft pick or a prospect out of the deal. That may seem like a deal they can’t refuse right? That’s not necessarily the case.
As an expansion franchise, you’ll be able to take on a couple of bad contracts to accumulate prospects or draft picks. However, there’s a caution that comes with these trades such as the type of player your acquiring.
Think about it, if a team is trying to persuade Vegas to take a certain player at the expansion draft, there’s a reason why that player is being let go. Whether it’s an insane contract, player performance or a bad locker room presence. Bottom line, GM’s around the NHL expect Vegas to be the place to dump their “trash”.
McPhee has to realize other General Managers around the league are going to try to rip him off. Luckily for Vegas fans, McPhee is a veteran GM and knows how things work in the hockey business. I’m sure the Golden Knights front office have already ran into some GM’s that have already tried to rob them.
Here’s a list of five players I believe that would be awful players to acquire at the expansion draft: