Golden Knights highly active with side deals negotiations.

It will break the expansion draft spirit.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 6 years ago
Golden Knights highly active with side deals negotiations.
Keystone press agency

It's a pretty frantic period in the NHL these days. After the emotional Stanley Cup finals, only a few days of rest was given to the hockey world before yet another widely covered event happened. The expansion draft has everyone talking since it was announced, but now is the true crunch time. 

The rule of the draft were set in place to make sure the Golden Knights became competitive right off the bat during their first year in the league. The players protection format let teams have a say in who stayed and who could go, but McPhee's strategy corrupted the process a bit. With negotiations going on for a few weeks now, the spirit of the draft is broken. According to report, 7 deals are now in place and many more could come before the actual draft. 

A lot of voices were heard decrying this strategy. McPhee's willing to accept draft picks in exchange of choosing less valuable players, hurting the initial value of his team in the process. Of course, in the grand scheme of things this strategy is optimal and clever, but Bettman's plan to field a competitive team in Vegas on day 1 might get thrown out of the window at the same time. 


Source: Twitter