Today is the day.
The deadline for the Vegas Golden Knights to submit their expansion draft selections has passed, and now we await for the roster to get revealed, as well as the supposedly many side deals George McPhee had with other clubs around the NHL.
Yesterday, McPhee said he had “at least” six trades completed. The Anaheim Ducks were among the clubs believed to have made a deal with Vegas.
On Wednesday morning, prior to the expansion draft selection deadline, TSN’s Bob McKenzie dropped this little tidbit involving Shea Theodore:
Let's start with ANA. The belief is VGK will claim Clayton Stoner, pass on Manson/Vatanen and, in return for all that, get Shea Theodore.
— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) June 21, 2017
Nothing has been confirmed or announced yet, and McKenzie added this qualifier.
I can't report that as a dead-set certain fact but there is a strong sense that is the ANA-VGK deal or something close to it.
— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) June 21, 2017
If this indeed is the case, that would be quite a pick-up for the Golden Knights. The Ducks selected Theodore in the first round of the 2013 NHL Draft. He’s been up and down between the Ducks and their minor league affiliate over the past two years but is only 21 years old and has shown plenty of potential as a young defenseman.
He’s also entering the final year of his entry-level contract.
This seems to be the price some general managers have to pay in order to keep certain other unprotected players on their roster. The Minnesota Wild were among the teams that exposed three good players -- Eric Staal, Matt Dumba and Marco Scandella -- and may have to get a deal done in order to avoid losing one of those players.
The Golden Knights, meanwhile, are in a position to stockpile a number of additional draft picks to help increase the growth of their young talent pool going forward.
My understanding is that VGK have secured via trades about 10 draft picks spread out over 3 years. So far anyway.
— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) June 21, 2017