Expansion Draft Re-do - Vegas takes Brodin

Team: 2019-20 Minnesota Wild

Initial Creation Date: Aug. 24, 2019

Published: Sep. 11, 2019

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

Thought it might be fun to look back at the expansion draft and see what the Wild might look like if Vegas took another player. My guess is Dumba would not have been exposed if there wasn't a deal in place, since their depth at LHD (Suter/Brodin/Scandella) was greater than RHD (Spurgeon/Dumba). On this scenario, Vegas takes Brodin to get a solid top 4 defenseman they can either keep or flip for futures.

There is still the cap penalty for buying out Ennis. I figured if they wouldn’t have traded for Ennis, but instead would have bought out Pominville so there would still be some dead money. I put Zuccarello on LTIR since they never would have signed him.

Buffalo fans might laugh at Scandella being a 2nd pairing guy, but Spurgeon and him were a solid 2nd pair when Suter and Brodin were the top pair so the defense remains a strength. The 2 main issues with this roster is that Neiderreiter is still probably the LW who needs to be traded because you’re paying him $5.25m to be on the 4th line and there isn't really a good spot for Kunin to play. The 2nd line would be an incredibly fast and fun line to watch. Cap space is tight, but there’s also the chance they never signed Pateryn and just stuck with Prosser at 3rd pair RHD to save cap.

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