Fansided

Seattle will get same expansion draft rules as Vegas, but they should be even more lenient

By Dave Stevenson

SEATTLE, WA - MARCH 1: Seattle NHL 2020 hats are on display at the Space Needle during the NHL Seattle season ticket deposit drive kickoff on Thursday, March 1, 2018 in Seattle, WA. (Photo by Christopher Mast/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
SEATTLE, WA - MARCH 1: Seattle NHL 2020 hats are on display at the Space Needle during the NHL Seattle season ticket deposit drive kickoff on Thursday, March 1, 2018 in Seattle, WA. (Photo by Christopher Mast/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit

Seattle will deservedly get the same NHL expansion draft rules as the Vegas Golden Knights. But given its entry fee, it should get even more lenient guidelines.

The Vegas Golden Knights are the NHL’s most recent expansion team. This won’t be true for long, as Seattle is closing in on getting an expansion team, perhaps as soon as the 2020-21 season. Though it won’t be official until the board of governors meeting in June, unless there are delays in the renovations to the KeyArena, which will serve as their hockey venue, there’s no reason to expect the NHL to turn them down.

Many fans are upset with the lenient rules the Golden Knights got. Especially considering how tough other expansion teams had it. However, it’s worth noting Vegas had to pay a $500 million expansion fee, compared to the $80 million fee the Columbus Blue Jackets and Minnesota Wild paid in 2000.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has confirmed Seattle will have the same rules as Vegas in their expansion draft. And unless the owners have an issue with it, they’ll accept Seattle’s expansion fee. This fee will be even higher than the one Vegas had to pay, with the price set at $650 million.

While people will whine the Golden Knights had it easy, they really didn’t. Sure, they got a franchise goalie in Marc-Andre Fleury right off the bat. But this was more due to the salary cap than the expansion draft rules. Every team could keep one goalie (which is reasonable) and had to expose one meeting certain requirements. The Penguins didn’t prepare and had to choose between Fleury and Matt Murray.

It’s good that the NHL has realized having a competitive team is good for a new market. However, Seattle should get even more lenient expansion draft rules than the ones Vegas got. The Golden Knights deserved their rules because of their expansion fee. So why shouldn’t Seattle, which had to pay more than Vegas, get better rules?

The Golden Knights were good mostly because the other general managers failed. Look at Vegas’ top three forward lines. The Blue Jackets willingly gave up William Karlsson so they would take David Clarkson. Nobody forced the Florida Panthers to give up Jonathan Marchessault so the Golden Knights would take Reilly Smith.

Erik Haula and Alex Tuch were given to Vegas so they wouldn’t take other Minnesota Wild players. Ryan Carpenter was a waiver claim. David Perron and James Neal were rarities — good players who good teams pretty much had to lose. Cody Eakin is the kind of guy you’re supposed to lose in an expansion draft. You can bet general managers aren’t going to be so generous in 2021.

Having a competitive team early would give Seattle a huge boost. It would make their hockey team relevant and exciting early, which is important in any budding hockey market. Just look how long it took the Columbus Blue Jackets and Nashville Predators to build up their fanbases. The Atlanta Thrashers completely failed.

Next: Each NHL Team's Biggest 'What If' Moment

Why not offer tiers for the expansion fee? If a team wants to pay more, reward them! How about if a team is willing to pay $900 million, they can pick any player who doesn’t have a no-movement clause from each team?

If the NHL is going to make Seattle pay more than Vegas to get an expansion team, even before factoring in the costs of renovating KeyArena, the league should make it worth their while.

Home/NHL