Throughout the past couple of weeks, I have looked at every NHL team’s expansion draft strategy. Today, I use the list of exposed players to select my version of the Vegas Golden Knights.
If you need a refresher for the exposed players for the Vegas Golden Knights, here are the links for the Central Division, the Pacific Division, the Metropolitan Division, and the Atlantic Division.
STRATEGY
The Golden Knights do not have to spend to the cap floor in their first season, but their total salary cap must be above $43.8 million. The advantage to maintaining the lowest possible cap, is the ability to use their leverage to acquire prospects along with bad contracts. Think of the Pavel Datsyuk to Arizona deal that saw the Coyotes nab the draft pick that became Jakob Chychrun.
Another thing I tried to do is to emphasize the selection of young defencemen with potential. It’s obvious that young defencemen have the most value, so stockpiling good young defencemen becomes the top priority.
I also tried to keep in mind George McPhee‘s relationships around the league to make the draft more realistic. McPhee was working for the New York Islanders as a special advisor prior to becoming the Golden Knights’ GM, and prior to that he had a lengthy tenure as GM of the Washington Capitals. There will be a few former Capitals on this team without a doubt.
My final roster included 15 forwards, 12 defensemen and 3 goaltenders. I matched the required 20 existing contracts, which was the bare minimum. My total salary came in at $53.1 million, meaning the Golden Knights will have $20 million in cap space to work out deals once their roster is established.