NHL Expansion Draft: 5 best players available for Golden Knights

The Vegas Golden Knights now know who’s available in the expansion draft. Here are the five best. 

The Vegas Golden Knights, unlike expansion teams in the past, will get a chance to draft some talented players. Not all teams will offer good players, but there are some quality skaters available. Vegas certainly will be able to be competitive early on if that’s the route they choose to go in the NHL expansion draft.

No matter what strategy the Golden Knights use in the expansion draft, they’re going to find the guys they want. This is much more than can be said for previous expansion teams, who got left with hardly any NHL caliber forwards at first. Teams could only protect 10 skaters at most, and some elected to protect eight (with four defenseman). Most importantly, each team could only protect one goalie. So there are definitely some great goalies available.

Let’s take a look at the five best players available for the Golden Knights.

5. Marc-Andre Fleury

Marc-Andre Fleury is not only an above average goalie on the ice, he’s an incredible person off the ice. Vegas is going to have to go fairly young in net, so selecting a veteran like the three-time Stanley Cup champion makes a lot of sense for the Golden Knights. He has two years remaining on his contract, so he would give them a quality stopgap option while their young goalies develop.

Though he lost his starting job to Matt Murray, Fleury was doing fine as the Penguins goaltender before his injury. He struggled in 2016-17, but he was also adjusting to a backup role. Also, Fleury came up huge when the Penguins needed him after Murray got injured right before Game 1 against the Columbus Blue Jackets.