I’d not want to take anything away from LV, I heard just a little discussion on the radio discussing how LV got a sweetheart deal to have such a good team as an expansion team. I’m not an expert on the sport so, it is just something to pay attention to. Maybe it’s sour grapes but never do expansion teams get out of the gate so quick.
You won't find a bigger hockey fan anywhere than me. If two teams from Tampa Bay and Las Vegas end up playing in the Stanley Cup finals, I probably won't watch a minute of it. It may even go down as the Finals with the lowest TV ratings in history.
In fairness to LV, the GM - George McPhee - drafted extremely well from the pool of players made available by the other NHL teams under the rules of the expansion draft. Each time was allowed to protect a certain number of players and everyone else was eligible to be drafted.
It is true that this time around, there was only one team in the expansion (LV) as opposed to 2 or more teams as in previous expansions (in 2000 both Columbus and Minnesota were added), meaning that LV had access to all of the draft-eligible players. However; there was no salary cap back in 2000, so teams were able to leave players with big contracts "exposed" for the draft thereby actually protecting them by making them less attractive to LV on the basis salary. Vegas also was limited to choosing one player from each team.
Overall; I don't see this as Vegas having any kind of a 'sweetheart' deal. It looks like, solid, strategic drafting and deal-making in addition to a bunch of guys playing with a chip on their shoulder looking to make a statement to the teams that let them go. Just my humble opinion as a Flyers fan, but foremost, a hockey fan.
The way it was set up, with only one team in the expansion, they did get a sweet deal.
But Las Vegas odds makers gave 500-1 odds for them winning the Stanley Cup. So they weren’t expected to do so well.
Total sour grapes. Like any other expansion draft they basically got their pick of 3rd and 4th liners. Coming in to the season everybody thought they’d be lucky to not finish dead last. Most of the guys they got had been on multiple teams before, perennial scrubs making near league minimum. The big difference is advanced analytics. They actually figured out what they wanted before hand and built the team to that.
It is a new expansion team in the desert. The NHL has/had to build a loyal fan base really fast or they would be owning another team (I think Arizona is still owned by the NHL). If the NHL allowed only the lower quality players to be transferred to LV nobody would fill the seats and they would not wait ten or more years for the team to build up. It would have been a flop.
I want to see the NHL do well and expand a bit, not too much but a bit, so I am not only for what happened with the player transfers but am actively rooting for the Knights. My two favorite teams are out and it looks like my home team is being relegated to being the worst team in the NHL for at least another decade so I will gladly wish the Golden Knights well. If it gets the desert dwellers into hockey then I am all for it.