With the NHL Expansion Draft and the birth of the Vegas Golden Knights just over two days away, the entire league is buzzing with anticipation. And now that the protected lists have been made public, fans and analysts are pouring over the list of available players and putting together their best guesses at what the NHLs 31st franchise might look like.
With the Rangers releasing their protected list yesterday, it’s now clear who will be up for grabs. Take a look for yourself:
Who do you think Vegas general manager George McPhee scoops up? Raanta? Grabner? Lindberg? Pirri? Puempel? Raanta seems like the obvious choice at this point. The 28 year old goaltender had a great season with the Rangers in 2016-17 posting a 2.27 GAA and .922 Sv%. There will be plenty of good goaltenders up for grabs, but you could argue that Raanta is the very best.
