[scrabblehack]

I don’t think it’s an embarrassment. Indeed, it surely raises the price that an owner would pay for a new franchise.

For the Vegas draft, teams could protect only one goalie and either (8 skaters) or (7 forwards and 3 defensemen).

The previous few expansion drafts have allowed protecting 1-2 goalies and 10-14 skaters.

From what I’ve read, Seattle will get essentially the same deal Vegas did (unless of course they get a relocated franchise instead of an expansion team).

[Alberta's Child]

Something else to remember is that the 2017 expansion was originally supposed to have two teams (Las Vegas and Quebec), but the NHL deferred a decision on Quebec after the expansion rules were already set.

It's also worth noting that conducting an expansion draft in the salary cap era gives another huge advantage to the drafting team: The other teams are willing to trade the new team draft picks in exchange for agreeing to take a specific player. This is exactly what happened with Marc-Andre Fleury. Las Vegas didn't just pick him because he was available. Pittsburgh gave LV a second round pick in the 2020 draft to take him off Pittsburgh's hands!