NHL Draft: Ranking each team’s expansion decision

11 months after the 2017 NHL Expansion Draft, let’s look at how each team did in the NHL Draft which forced them to lose at least one player 

In June of 2017, the NHL held an expansion draft for the Vegas Golden Knights. This NHL Draft was different from previous ones because teams weren’t allowed to protect as many players as in the past. To be fair to Vegas, they paid a huge expansion fee and the owners unanimously agreed to the terms.

Who would have thought the Golden Knights would be heading to the Stanley Cup Final 11 months ago? With hindsight in mind, let’s take a look at how each team did. We’ll separate each team into tiers, depending on how they did.

Several things will be considered. First of all, who did they lose? Secondly, did the team really miss who they lost? Thirdly, if said player was a contributor for the Golden Knights, was it believable 11 months ago? Fourthly, could the team in question have done anything to help their case? Fifthly, what were the other options?

The 2017 expansion draft was full of some great decisions. It also featured some horrendous ones. Several general managers should probably be fired for incompetence. Others got very lucky, losing virtually nothing. Vegas made a number of teams pay to protect their players. Whether or not it was worth it will also be taken into consideration.