Vegas Golden Knights

My 2nd kick at the cat here. Still using auto protect, so some corrections will need to be made. Well aware of the Fleury/Murray situation, as well as some points brought up in within the comments of my last post, but as noted previously if trying to compare rosters against others out there, beginning with the same variables should help us all better ascertain value & the many complications that come along with Vegas' selections.

I've maximized 2017 RFA's with 10. Huge currency with which Vegas can use as trade chips to build their prospect pool.

I think this is certainly a better roster than my last attempt which used the same reasoning, but this one has identified a few better young players.

https://www.capfriendly.com/forums/thread/58421

There were a number of last second changes due to my preferred roster being two 201-2018 contracts away from being valid. Ended up changing players from Buffalo, New Jersey & Vancouver. Wow... slim picking from these teams!

no way in hell St louis will leave vladimir sobotka unprotected

As stated, quick protect was used. I do so to literally encourage people like yourself from commenting so they can bring out WHY whatever player mentioned should be protected & then have them insert the logical replacement. Blanket statement aren't helpful & do nothing to encourage dialogue in any facet of life.

I agree Sobotka is a hell of a player. What forward do they expose in his place?

The Blues ran a top 9 in the playoffs consisting of:

Schwartz / Stastny / Tarasenko
Steen / Berglund / Perron
Sobotka / Lehtera / Paajarvi

I'll assume you'd suggest another LW. Perron would be the likely candidate making Vegas decide between him & Paajarvi.

My last mock draft had Paajarvi selected, but he's a 2017 RFA & with Vegas only able to select 10 players not under contract, it becomes a hard decision on whether you use one of these limited selection on him when better 2017 RFA's are available elsewhere.

Would you agree then it's Perron? That leads to the question as to whether he has more value to Vegas than any of the available Blues defensemen. Gunnarson, Bortuzzo & Lindholm are those options.

Input?

Cammalleri wont be taken at that salary, they'll be no trade deadline value for him either so not sure of your logic there. Beau Bennett is a younger, cheaper version. Vegas wont need to hit the floor either with Free Agency signings to come.

Vegas taking Charles Hudon would be grounds alone for Bergevin to be fired! He's there only good top forward prospect in the minors but i can see it happening as the Habs value guys like Andrew Shaw instead which is crazy but it's the idiot Canadiens management. Benn, Beaulieu, De La Rose are the other options but if Charles Hudon is exposed i would expect him to be taken in expansion. Huge mistake by Montreal! Im a Habs fan and I sadly can see it happening. This team is schadenfreude to the maximum!

Cam Ward could go if Carolina sweetens the pot somehow with a draft pick as they have many options on forward and defense to grab. Nordstrom is a big bruiser that could help fill out their bottom 6 as he's young.

Murray we've discussed wont happen but if you want to be generic, it's fine. It will be a forward most likely like Carl Hagelin as Fleury almost assuredly will be traded to Calgary or Winnipeg and the Pens need to protect their young cheap dmen to make future runs. Hagelin is overpaid but still useful for Vegas especially to trade at deadline. Speed on the wings is huge in this league.

Scissons or Jankrok. Very tough decision for Nashville there. At first glance you say they protect Scissons for sure but that Jankrok contract is awesome when you can lock a young shutdown centre in for 4 yrs at 2 million per year, he shut the door on Getzlaf when Johansen went down. Interesting to see what Nashville does as they certainly will be protect 4 Dmen much like Anaheim

I actually had Bennet selected, but as a 2017 RFA he was one of 11 that I had selected. Selectively going thru this list, Bennet became the deletion for a plethora of reasons. Certain teams like Arizona for instance had no one else of interest whereas other 2017 RFA's were far more talented.

All your arguments are valid. Many teams need to address their expansion problems & have had a year to do so since expansion rules were officially announced, yet 15 days remain. One of the takeaways from creating a mock team is realizing there's only a handful of teams that can take on players in trade without causing other core members of their team to be exposed.

I certainly understand that each GM wants to trade players, but no one's having much success for now. I also understand these same GM's may ask Vegas to cut them a deal. If I'm spending $500 million for a franchise & being provided 30 picks, I'm doing no one favours. Pittsburgh obviously wants Fleury traded. The Jets for instance need a goalie. Add some salary retention & it's a deal made in heaven. Pittsburgh solves it's problem..until you realize the Jets then have to expose Hellebuyck thus the deal can't happen.

There's many of these scenarios & each have considerable repercussions.

Perhaps not all, but there will certainly be a number of teams that end up exposing players many assumed would have been traded.

The trades will all be coming this coming week and after the Finals with Fleury. You can't trade him as he's in the Cup finals. A lot of moving parts I agree but Murray's salary makes it a must for the Pens to keep him. If anything happens where the Knights take a Pens goalie, it will certainly be Fleury as he will waive his no movement. Too good of a soldier in Pittsburgh not to do it. It's just a distraction to waive it now only reason Fleur has not waived the clause

I also agree with the trade schemes. People make it out to sound so simple with a team like Anaheim or Minnesota. Oh just trade Manson, Silfverberg or Dumba and Brodin.

Like c'mon first off trades are very hard without specifics needs and fits. Fleury to Winnipeg and Calgary makes perfect sense as there is need by both teams and cap space. But whom will take on those former salaries and actually give back assets. No teams owe Anaheim or Minnesota anything. Playing the desperation card will not give you good value when trading more than player. One ok, you can swallow that when you lose a player to expansion regardless but when multiple players are exposed like in Anaheim and Minnesota you are trading from a weak position multiple players just not to lose one player. That is not value trading thats mismanagement assets. Those options cancel each other out or make trading even worse than losing one player for nothing.

I think the blues will expose Jori Lehtera. His 4.7 million contract is too much and they are on a tight budget with resigning Colton Parayko . Vladimir Sobotka could then move to centre and take his place . I wouldn't expose David Perron as the blues lack right wingers

Yeah from reading a lot of Blues fans, Lehtera looks like the one they want gone!
Ppl on this site could easily learn what teams might be thinking when talking to specific fan bases.
I laugh overtime someone has Paul Byron exposed. lol a 1 million a year player that scores 20 goals will be exposed ha.
In the cap age it's not necessarily where you fit on the depth chart but your value on the market.
Lehtera's value isn't much at that salary, much like a guy like Bobby Ryan. No one wants a guy making 7.5 million a year for the next 5 years when he scored 25 pts in 62 games this year and is on a downturn at 30 years of age. Ottawa is definitely exposing him, the question is will Vegas take an American player with former glory to sell tickets! Ryan was even asked this and he says he can't see Vegas taking him at that salary lol