#STLBlues lose Perron to Vegas in expansion draft

There's a lot to like about what the Vegas Golden Knights did during the expansion draft on Wednesday.

It had been a long 12 months for the Vegas Golden Knights general manager, who had spent the past year running countless mock expansion drafts in preparation for this moment.

Vegas Golden Knights: The team had to pay $500 million to join the league, so Vegas was always meant to be the biggest victor in this expansion draft. The league is expected to reveal the list of players that will be added to the roster of the Golden Knights for the expansion franchise. McPhee answered questions about his team and the National Hockey League expansion draft.

This time, however, the Knights are on the spotlight by achieving a major objective-becoming the league's 31st franchise.

Vegas received first-round picks from the New York Islanders and the Columbus Blue Jackets in complicated transactions created to protect some assets and dump other financial albatrosses. The Vegas Golden Knights picked Marchessault in the expansion draft Wednesday, June 21, 2017.

"I think we're going to be competitive", said McNabb, who found out a day ago that he was being claimed. "That's the nature of the expansion draft and the price for having an additional team in the National Hockey League".

One of the worst-kept secrets entering the draft was that the Golden Knights would select Fleury, who waived a no-movement clause in his contract so that he could be left unprotected for the expansion draft while allowing the Stanley Cup champion Penguins to protect 23-year-old Matt Murray.

J-F Berube (New York Islanders) will be Vegas's third goalie.

"I was just going on the stage to give a quick welcome", Fleury said.

Vegas didn't go hog wild with goalies, opting to leaving Detroit's Petr Mrazek, Philadelphia's Michal Neuvirth, the New York Rangers' Antti Raanta and Washington's Philipp Grubauer alone. While I am not surprised by this pick, it does sadden me that Jonathan's time on Florida has come to an end. Making those agreements got Vegas forward prospect Alex Tuch from the Wild, defenseman Shea Theodore from the Ducks, unsigned forward prospect Nikita Gusev from the Lightning and the 15th pick and defensive prospect Jake Bischoff from NY. That leaves Methot, Alexei Emelin, Jon Merrill, Colin Miller, Luca Sbisa and Nate Schmidt.

From Tampa Bay, Vegas picked up defenseman Jason Garrison, who had nine power-play goals last season, along with forward Nikita Gusev, a 2017 second-round pick and a 2018 fourth-pick for expansion draft considerations.

And with that, George McPhee exhaled.

It is reasonable to assume that Marc-Andre Fleury will be their No. 1 goalie, James Neal will be their top-line right winger and, barring a trade, Marc Methot will be on their top defensive pair.

Marchessault led the Panthers in goals this season. Nope, it turns out that the Golden Knights straight up wanted Emelin, who has a $4.1 million cap hit for one more season. He began his career with the Florida Panthers, and played three seasons in the Sunshine State before signing with his hometown Canucks as a free-agent in 2012. Vegas shipped defenceman Trevor van Riemsdyk and a seventh-round pick next year to Carolina for Pittsburgh's second-round pick this year, and then traded David Schlemko to Montreal for a fifth-round pick in 2019.

Who will be their first draft pick? Neal may have immediately become one of the faces of the young franchise, but if McPhee can deal him to a team looking for some offensive punch in exchange for an attractive haul, he'd be foolish to pass it up. 6, 13 and 15 — and players with trade value, McPhee still has leverage when the NHL's trade freeze lifts Thursday morning. They have many, many draft picks, and as much cap space as anyone, and seemingly the go-ahead from the owner to be patient.

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