2017 NHL expansion draft: Breaking down the Golden Knights’ most surprising choices

There’s a lot to like about what the Vegas Golden Knights did during the expansion draft on Wednesday. They now have three draft picks in the top 15 overall this year, a pair of top prospects in Alex Tuch and Shea Theodore, and a roster that may not scream contender, but signals this team might not be a total mess out of the gate.

So it’s fair to say that GM George McPhee and his staff set up the Golden Knights for a lot of potential success in the coming years. The entry draft this weekend will presumably make it even clearer what Vegas is trying to do, but for now, you get the sense that at the very least, McPhee has a plan to build a winner in the desert.

That plan will not be without some head-scratching decisions, however. This is the NHL, after all, where there seems to be a regular divide at times between general managers and the public opinion on certain players. So it should be no surprise that the Golden Knights would make decisions that might seem questionable at first glance.

McPhee will have the chance to prove us all wrong in the end, and if he can hit on some of his high draft picks this year, there’s a good chance he’s put his team on the road to success. But before we can start really digging into what the future holds for the Golden Knights, let’s look at some of their most surprising expansion draft selections.

More than anything, this tells you how low the Golden Knights must’ve been on the Red Wings’ other players. Center Riley Sheahan, defenseman Xavier Ouellet, and goaltender Petr Mrazek were all on their unprotected list for the expansion draft.

Instead, Vegas went with Nosek, an undrafted 24-year-old who spent the past three seasons in the AHL. He put up good numbers in 2016-17 with the Grand Rapids Griffins, recording 41 points in 51 games, but you have to be wondering what spurred the Golden Knights to avoid three similarly aged players who already have NHL experience.

Mrazek in particular is a surprise situation. The Red Wings were expected to protect him but went with veteran Jimmy Howard instead. Then came reports that the decision was due to issues between Mrazek and management. He’s talented, but you have to wonder if that stuff scared away Vegas.

When word was going around that Vegas was taking Emelin, the speculation was that it must be getting an asset from Montreal not to take Brandon Davidson or Charles Hudon. Nope, it turns out that the Golden Knights straight up wanted Emelin, who has a $4.1 million cap hit for one more season.

That’s surprising because Emelin isn’t necessarily a $4.1 million player given the poor season he just had. The Canadiens may end up viewing this move as addition by subtraction, while the Golden Knights added a veteran who is expensive, but not all that great.

This feels like the kind of move that could’ve came with a pick attached. Otherwise, you’d think the younger, cheaper Davidson would be a more appealing option.

Lindberg is a fine young player, but the Rangers left Antti Raanta and Michael Grabner available. The former is a potential starting goalie, the latter is coming off a 27-goal season. Both are signed to affordable deals through next season. But the Rangers went with Lindberg, who still needs to be signed as a restricted free agent, without getting anything else in return. That’s a little surprising.

Philadelphia managed to protect its best players without issue, so the prime candidates for Vegas seemed like Michael Raffl, Dale Weise, Michal Neuvirth, or possibly free agent Jordan Weal. They ended up going with Bellemare, a physical forward who just put up eight points over 82 games in 2016-17.

It seems obvious that Bellemare was chosen to make sure the Golden Knights had an edge on the ice. He’ll bring that, and he’s also a versatile forward who can play winger but also take faceoffs. Over the past three years, he’s been a serviceable 48 percent in that area.

Still, Bellemare is the kind of player that’s typically not that difficult to replace, so it’s a little surprising Vegas went with him. Then again, he’s cheaper than Raffl, Weise, or Neuvirth, so the salary cap likely figured in here to some degree.

The alternative was probably picking an RFA then declining to qualify him, so I guess you can see where this one came from.

The best players on offer for Vegas were arguably Anaheim’s Sami Vatanen and Josh Manson and Minnesota’s Eric Staal, Mathew Dumba, and Marco Scandella. Somehow, the Golden Knights managed to come away with none of them thanks to a pair of side deals.

In the end, Vegas got Clayton Stoner, Erik Haula, Alex Tuch, and Shea Theodore from those teams instead of, say, Manson and Dumba. Is that a win for the Golden Knights? You would need to be really high on Haula, Tuch, and Theodore because Manson and Dumba would be top-four defensemen in Vegas for the next 5-10 years.

Maybe these guys never would’ve been unprotected if not for the side deals, but the Golden Knights went with the top prospects over good, already-established defensemen. It’s fair to wonder whether they ultimately got enough to pass on such valuable pieces.