SteelPro wrote:
Orangesteel wrote:
VGK is getting some outstanding play from guys that were not supposed to produce like they are:
Karlsson
Marchessault
Smith
Neal is a shit but he’s talented. I can see them playing NASH, Winnipeg or San Jose for the West.
FWIW Marchessault put up 30 goals last year for the Panthers. And Reilly Smith has a 25 goal season on his resume and has averaged close to 20 over the last 4 years.
Kind of nuts that the expansion draft was set up so well (and honestly a little unfair) for that team to get some pretty strong talent.
Not really. The team is still comprised of mostly bottom-6 players and third pairing defensemen. The true hero of the VGK story is their coach Gerrard Gallant, who built his team's playstyle perfectly around the suboptimal roster that Irsay created for him.
The draft made it very easy for teams to keep their core players. Take the Penguins for example. They're a team absolutely loaded with high-end talent, yet they were able to keep every single one of their desired players. Most teams didn't have the goaltender situation that the Penguins did, which necessitated the trade of Fleury/2nd round pick. That's an easy swap for Pitt, and VGK didn't hold them over a barrel. VGK could have easily selected someone like Justin Schultz instead. With how many goalies were available, this would have been the best option at the time. Very few teams had logjam situations that required them to give up huge assets to keep a player or just outright lose that player. I can only really think that Anaheim and Minnesota were truly hurting.
For Marchessault/Smith, Florida ownership wanted to drop payroll by $10 million. That was the easiest way to do it. Fans are responding to this by not showing up to the games (not that they were before).They are the Pirates of hockey.
Vegas could have easily held teams hostage more than they did or, in many, many cases, taken a better or more-established player than they did. For example, Vegas could have taken T.J. Oshie from WSH and threw a bunch of money at him instead of Schmidt. Sami Vatanen from ANA (though Theodore is outplaying him this season). Schultz (RFA) from PITT.
A lot of the top options available to Vegas from some teams were downright weak, unremarkable, or players entering free agency. A lot of these players, such as David Perron, are overperforming at the moment. Perron has been nothing more than an inconsistent 2nd line player his whole career. He's producing like a first liner at the moment. Erik Huala, the guy Vegas "settled for" in a trade, was nothing more than a solid 3C in Minnesota. He's performing like a top 6er right now. Derryk Engelland, a bottom-pairing/7th D guy, is playing top 4 minutes, is +12, and is one point off his career-high of 17 in just 52 games.
Nashville dumped Neal because he was in the last year of his contract and they valued some of their youth over him. I doubt if Neal would re-sign in NSH anyway. If anything, it was a tough sell for Vegas even to select him. He'd be likely to walk the next year if the team was bad. Then again, he would likely be involved in a midseason trade, yielding prospects in that scenario. Vegas easily could have went for a guy like Jarnkrok or Sissons, which would have just saved them money to land one of the higher-priced unprotected players instead.
Only a few team were absolutely idiotic. Everyone knew William Karlsson was going to have a breakout year. That's easy money.