George McPhee sat in a room in Las Vegas and basically committed highway robbery for three days straight. Seriously. It was June 2017. The hockey world knew the Vegas Golden Knights were coming, but nobody actually expected them to be good. The consensus was that they’d be a ragtag group of third-liners and castoffs struggling to win twenty games in a desert where hockey shouldn’t exist. Instead, the 2017 NHL expansion draft turned into the greatest masterclass in leverage ever seen in professional sports.
They didn't just pick players. They took ransom.
If you look back at the rosters from that summer, it’s honestly kind of embarrassing how many General Managers panicked. They were so terrified of losing a specific "core" player that they handed McPhee extra draft picks and high-end prospects just to "protect" guys who aren't even in the league anymore. It was a league-wide fever dream.
The Rules That Changed Everything
Before we get into the trades that made GMs look like amateurs, you’ve gotta understand why the 2017 NHL expansion draft was different from the ones in the 90s. When the Blue Jackets and Wild joined in 2000, the rules were brutal. Existing teams could protect a massive chunk of their roster. Vegas got a much better deal.
Teams had two choices: protect seven forwards, three defensemen, and one goalie, or just go with eight skaters total (regardless of position) and one goalie. This put teams with deep defensive corps—like Minnesota or Anaheim—in a massive bind. If you had four great defensemen, you had to use the eight-skater option, which meant you could only protect four forwards. Suddenly, 25-goal scorers were sitting out there like sitting ducks.
The NHL wanted Vegas to be competitive. They succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. By making the protection lists tighter, they forced GMs to make impossible choices. And that’s where McPhee started making phone calls.
The Florida Panthers Disaster
If there is a "Patient Zero" for how not to handle an expansion draft, it’s the Florida Panthers. This is still the gold standard for front-office mismanagement. They didn't just lose one good player; they basically gifted the Golden Knights a top-line identity.
Florida was worried about losing a defenseman. So, they protected guys like Mark Pysyk and Alex Petrovic. To ensure Vegas didn't take someone they liked, they traded Reilly Smith to the Golden Knights in exchange for... nothing but the "agreement" that Vegas would select Jonathan Marchessault.
Think about that.
Marchessault had just scored 30 goals. Smith was a proven, versatile top-six winger. Vegas got both for the price of one expansion pick. It was a massive swing. Marchessault went on to win a Conn Smythe with Vegas and became the franchise's all-time leading scorer. Florida? They spent years trying to replace that production. It’s the kind of move that keeps a fanbase awake at night. Honestly, it's still hard to fathom what the Panthers' logic was at the time.
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Leveraging the Fear of Loss
The 2017 NHL expansion draft wasn't really about the players Vegas drafted off the lists. It was about the "side deals."
- Columbus Blue Jackets: They were terrified of losing Josh Anderson or Joonas Korpisalo. To protect them, they gave Vegas a first-round pick, a second-round pick, and David Clarkson’s massive, unplayable contract. Vegas took William Karlsson. "Wild Bill" proceeded to score 43 goals in his first season in Nevada.
- Minnesota Wild: Fearing they’d lose Matt Dumba, they traded prospect Alex Tuch to Vegas so the Knights would take Erik Haula. Tuch became a superstar power forward. Haula had a career year.
- Anaheim Ducks: They gave up Shea Theodore—one of the best puck-moving defensemen in the world today—just so Vegas would take Clayton Stoner’s contract and leave their other defensemen alone.
Vegas was essentially a pawn shop. Teams came in with a "problem" (a bad contract or an unprotected star) and McPhee charged them an arm and a leg to fix it. He collected first-round picks like they were hockey cards. By the time the draft ceremony at T-Mobile Arena actually happened, the Golden Knights already had more talent and draft capital than half the established franchises in the league.
Why the "Misfit" Narrative Was Only Half True
We love a good underdog story. The "Golden Misfits" became a rallying cry for that 2017-18 team that went all the way to the Stanley Cup Final. The idea was that these were guys nobody wanted.
But let’s be real for a second.
These weren't "misfits" in the sense that they couldn't play. They were "misfits" because of a math problem. Teams could only protect 11 players. In a league with 23-man rosters, you’re leaving 12 NHL-caliber athletes exposed. Vegas didn't find diamonds in the rough; they just picked up diamonds that other teams weren't allowed to keep in their jewelry box.
Take Marc-André Fleury. The Penguins didn't "not want" him. They had Matt Murray, who was younger and cheaper and had just won two Cups. They had to choose. Fleury was still an elite goaltender. When Vegas landed a Hall of Famer as their "expansion pick," the competitive balance of the league shifted instantly. It was the ultimate foundation.
The Ripple Effect on Seattle
When the Seattle Kraken entered the league in 2021, everyone expected a repeat of the 2017 NHL expansion draft. GMs were supposed to be the victims again. But they learned. Oh boy, did they learn.
In 2021, nobody made trades with Ron Francis. GMs decided they would rather lose a player for nothing than give up a first-round pick and a prospect just to keep a guy. They saw what happened to Florida and Columbus. They chose to take their medicine instead of paying the ransom. This is why the Kraken’s initial roster looked a lot more like what people thought Vegas would look like—a bunch of hardworking grinders without a ton of elite scoring.
The 2017 draft was a one-time vacuum. It relied on the league being caught off guard. It relied on GMs being overconfident in their ability to outsmart a new team.
The Long-Term Lessons
Looking back from 2026, the legacy of that draft is clear. It changed how teams value depth and how they manage the salary cap.
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If you're a team today, you're constantly looking at your roster through the lens of "who is essential?" The 2017 NHL expansion draft proved that "essential" is a relative term. Most of the players GMs paid to protect are long gone, while the assets they gave up to protect them—the Shea Theodores and Alex Tuchs of the world—are still elite players.
It also proved that a clean cap sheet is the most valuable asset in sports. Vegas started with $0 in committed salary. They could take on bad contracts in exchange for elite picks because they had the room. That flexibility is something every Cup contender now tries to emulate, though few can actually pull it off given the reality of long-term deals.
Actionable Insights for Hockey Fans and Analysts
If you're looking to understand how the modern NHL is built, you have to start with 2017. Here is what you should take away from that era:
- Asset Management > Sentiment: Never pay to protect a player over the age of 28. The draft picks you give up will almost always outlive the player's peak performance.
- Depth is a Trap: Having "too much depth" is a great problem until an expansion draft happens. Teams now focus on "staggering" contracts so they don't have five key players hitting RFA/UFA status at the same time.
- The "Vegas Model" is Unrepeatable: Unless the league changes the rules again, no expansion team will ever have the leverage Vegas had. They caught the league in a moment of transition and exploited every single gap in the collective bargaining agreement.
The Golden Knights didn't just get lucky. They were predatory. And while the rest of the league has caught on, the scars from that summer are still visible on the rosters of 30 other teams.