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2018 NHL Draft: Report card grades for every team

By Jeremy Lambert

DALLAS, TX - JUNE 22: Rasmus Dahlin of the Buffalo Sabres, Andrei Svechnikov of the Carolina Hurricanes and Jesperi Kotkaniemi of the Montreal Canadians pose for a picture of the 2018 NHL draft on June 22, 2018 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas. (Photo by Matthew Pearce/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
DALLAS, TX - JUNE 22: Rasmus Dahlin of the Buffalo Sabres, Andrei Svechnikov of the Carolina Hurricanes and Jesperi Kotkaniemi of the Montreal Canadians pose for a picture of the 2018 NHL draft on June 22, 2018 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas. (Photo by Matthew Pearce/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /
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DALLAS, TX – JUNE 23: Ivan Morozov poses after being selected 61st overall by the Vegas Golden Knights during the 2018 NHL Draft at American Airlines Center on June 23, 2018 in Dallas, Texas. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images)
DALLAS, TX – JUNE 23: Ivan Morozov poses after being selected 61st overall by the Vegas Golden Knights during the 2018 NHL Draft at American Airlines Center on June 23, 2018 in Dallas, Texas. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images) /

Vegas Golden Knights – D

No First Round Pick

A terrible trade by the Golden Knights. They gave up this pick for Tomas Tatar. Yes, the Golden Knights went to the Cup Final and had an amazing playoff run. Tatar was in the press box for most of it. He played in just eight playoff games for Vegas. When you see teams like Winnipeg and Boston gets players like Paul Stastny and Rick Nash for first-round selections, you have to do better than Tatar. This trade made no sense at the time and did not work for Vegas.

Other Notable Picks: Ivan Morozov (C) (61), Stanislav Demin (D) (99) Xavier Bouchard (D) (185)

The Golden Knights also traded their third round pick to Minnesota for Alex Tuch. That deal worked out a lot better than the Tomas Tatar trade. Ivan Morozov looks to be a solid addition. He showed off an impressive two-way game in Russia, but wasn’t playing against the best competition. I’ll give them marks for Stanislav Demin just because they selected a guy whose last name is also the position his plays. They found good value in Xavier Bouchard. Some thought he could go in the third round and the Golden Knights managed to draft him in the sixth.

On the surface, this is an average draft at best for the Golden Knights. Their second round pick still needs a lot of seasoning and despite Bouchard’s upside, he’s still a sixth round pick. The main knock against Vegas is dealing their first-round selection for a guy who barely played.

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