Florida Panthers: The Expansion Draft and all its stress
By Joey Bailey
With the Expansion Draft inching closer and closer, the Florida Panthers are heavily involved in trade talks. Jonathan Marchessault was the name that popped up first, but now it’s being said that Riley Smith is also in the mix.
As time goes on today and also at the NHL awards tonight, we will find out what Dale Tallon and the Panthers have up their sleeve. The NHL Awards/Expansion Draft will start at 8 p.m ET. on NBCSN, hosted at the T-Mobile Arena, home of the Golden Knights.
"Basic 2017 NHL Expansion Draft Rules–Vegas will take one player — no more, or no less — from each existing team.–They must select at least 14 forwards, nine defensemen and three goalies.–20 of the 30 players must be under contract in 2017-18.–The cap hit of all players selected in the Expansion Draft must be somewhere between $43.8 million and $73 million."
Marchessault was the obvious favorite to be picked by Vegas at first. Since he’s just a $750k cap hit, he’s definitely the low risk high reward player that general managers dream of. However, it was his first full NHL season and there is questions on whether Marchy can continue scoring at the same rate.
Even more recently, Reilly Smith’s name has come to the light of trade talks with Vegas. In a tweet that Bob McKenzie posted early this morning, he stated that a Smith trade wouldn’t exactly be able to protect Marchessault from being chosen.
It was suggested to me FLA's deal with VGK MAY actually be for Vegas to end up acquiring both Marchessault and Rielly Smith (also exposed).
— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) June 21, 2017
So what exactly does this mean? Well considering that losing Marchessault for nothing was the worst case scenario, it seems Tallon and company are just trying to cut their losses. After last offseason’s spending spree, the premise is understandable but they seem to have run out of options.
The Panthers didn’t have any luck coming off of Keith Yandle’s contract. The same thing can be said with Jason Demers. He doesn’t seem to be one of the “many defenseman” the Knights will be selecting. Long story short, the buyer’s remorse has kicked in.
Locking in the young guys (Trocheck, Huberdeau, Ekblad) was the right move but the constant change of direction is very confusing to fans. Now we all just sit back and hope for the best. I trust Dale.