Kukla's Korner Hockey
Questioning the expansion draft’s format
by George Malik on 11/27/16 at 02:52 AM ET
Comments (1)
From the New York Post's Larry Brooks:
“AND as the first pick in the 2017 Expansion Draft, the Vegas Golden Knights select PLACEHOLDER.”
Last week’s unveiling of the NHL’s 31st franchise’s name and logo replete with technical malfunctions was almost charming in an amateur-hour type of way. But at least we saw it unfold, which is maybe the problem.
Because, you see, while this fiasco of a celebration of colors and shield was presented live on every one of your screens, the expansion draft itself will be conducted behind closed doors on June 20, the results of which won’t be announced until the following day. That leaves 24 hours for every selected player’s name to be leaked in haphazard fashion.
Come to think of it, VGKGMGM (The acronym by which Vegas Golden Knights general manager George McPhee will be known) might make his picks with the doors open, for all any one will know. What, the league (or maybe the NHLPA) doesn’t want the order of selection made public, for fear the last pick will be insulted?
A one-team expansion draft may not make for great theater but it is, you know, news. And as such, and of course, the selections should be revealed in real time, even if pretty much every single one of them selected by VGKGMGM will indeed be a placeholder.
Continued, with the usual assortment of topics...
Filed in: | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: george+mcphee,
las+vegas,
vegas+golden+knights
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Larry Brooks doesn’t understand how this expansion draft works. Lss Vegas takes one player from each team. There is no first pick or no last pick. They will likely hand a piece of paper to the NHL with each team in alphabetical order and the player from that team that they take. For some teams, the player taken will be a placeholder who has no NHL hopes because no NHL team needs 30 NHL players so they can lose some on waivers. It might be that the most important expansion draft pick comes halfway down the list. There is nothing about this process to make it a potential media event.
Posted by PuckStopsHere on 11/27/16 at 10:22 AM ET