Vegas Golden Knights: Mock Draft and Roster Projection, Final Edition

Vegas Golden Knights: The Playoffs are Almost Over! And With 12 days Left Until the Expansion Draft, We Bring You A Whole New Mock!

Welcome to a brand new Vegas Golden Knights mock draft, the season has ended and the playoffs are nearing completion meaning a new perspective on exposed players is now available. So who would the following 30 teams protect and leave exposed? Well, you’ll have to look to find out.

In this mock I’m going to be using two protection plans, the 7-3-1 scheme which covers seven forwards, three defensemen and one goalie. And a 4-4-1 scheme which covers four forwards, four defensemen and one goalie. I also have a few players waiving their NMC’s (no movement clause) in order for teams to protect someone younger and more influential players on the team. At the bottom, I’m going to post the full roster and possible depth chart.

Anaheim Ducks:
Protection Plan: 4-4-1
Vegas Draft Pick: Jakob Silfverberg

Protected Players:
Corey Perry (NMC), Ryan Getzlaf (NMC), Ryan Kesler (NMC), Rickard Rakell, Hampus Lindholm, Sami Vatanen, Cam Fowler, Kevin Bieksa (NMC), John Gibson

Best Exposed Players:
Jakob Silfverberg, Andrew Cogliano, Antoine Vermette, Simon Despres, Clayton Stoner, Josh Manson, Jonathan Bernier, Dustin Tokarski, Logan Shaw, Emerson Etem, Patrick Eaves.

Anaheim is in a tough position moving forward, whichever plan they go with they are going to lose someone good in my 4-4-1 plan I atleast having them save four important defensemen and offenseman. With the condition pick some like Josh Manson can be protected.

Arizona Coyotes:
Protection Plan: 7-3-1
Vegas Draft Pick: Louis Domingue

Protected Players:
Tobias Rieder, Anthony Duclair, Josh Jooris, Jordan Martinook, Teemu Pulkkinen, Peter Holland, Alexander Burmistrov, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Alex Goligoski (NMC), Connor Murphy, Mike Smith

Best Exposed Players:
Jamie McGinn, Brad Richardson, Shane Doan, Jeremy Morin, Luke Schenn, Kevin Connauton, Zbynek Michalek, Jarred Tinordi, Jamie McBain, Louis Domingue, Radim Vrbata

Luckily for the Coyotes the bulk of their youth and success is automatically exempt. So if the Knights want to target someone with long term upside, their best bet is Louis Domingue.

Boston Bruins:
Protection Plan: 7-3-1
Vegas Draft Pick: Matt Beleskey

Protected Players:
David Krejci (NMC), Patrice Bergeron (NMC), Brad Marchand, David Backes, Jimmy Hayes, Ryan Spooner, David Pastrnak, Torey Krug, Kevan Miller, Colin Miller, Tuukka Rask

Best Exposed Players:
Matt Beleskey, Riley Nash, Tim Schaller, Drew Stafford, Adam McQuaid, Zdeno Chara (NMC Waived), Joe Morrow, John-Michael Liles, Anton Khudobin, Malcolm Subban

With the imminent retirement of Zdeno Chara coming, the Bruins would be able to protect three solid defenseman and their top seven forwards. They could use a conditional pick to protect Malcolm Subban though, which leaves Vegas open to choosing someone like Matt Beleskey.

Buffalo Sabres:
Protection Plan: 4-4-1
Vegas Draft Pick: Nicolas Deslauriers

Protected Players:
Ryan O’Reilly, Kyle Okposo (NMC), Evander Kane, Tyler Ennis, Rasmus Ristolainen, Zach Bogosian, Jake McCabe, Dmitry Kulikov, Robin Lehner

Best Exposed Players:
Nicolas Deslauriers, Matt Moulson, Marcus Foligno, Johan Larsson, Zemgus Girgensons, Brian Gionta, Josh Gorges, Cody Franson, Anders Nilsson, Linus Ullmark

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Buffalo has a lot of defenseman that need protection since it’s their biggest weakness, so the only plan would be a 4-4-1 scheme. This plan though would still leave some quality forwards on the table, which is okay since the team has a lot of young forwards ready to take over. Now the best selection due to cap space would be someone like Nicolas Deslauriers.

Calgary Flames:
Protection Plan: 7-3-1
Vegas Draft Pick: Matt Bartkowski

Protected Players:
Johnny Gaudreau, Sean Monahan, Troy Brouwer, Mikael Backlund, Sam Bennett, Micheal Ferland, Curtis Lazar, Mark Giordano, Dougie Hamilton, T.J. Brodie, Brian Elliott

Best Exposed Players:
Michael Frolik, Matt Stajan, Lance Bouma, Hunter Shinkaruk, Freddie Hamilton, Kris Versteeg, Matt Bartkowski, Tyler Wotherspoon, Dennis Wideman, Deryk Engelland, Michael Stone, Chad Johnson, Brandon Bollig, Alex Chiasson

Vegas only gets one pick which means a lot of the Flames exposed players won’t be going anywhere so there isn’t much to worry about, but out of them all the best choice is Matt Bartkowski who has a low cap hit and is still quite useful.