NHL Expansion Draft: Washington Capitals lose Philipp Grubauer

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Dec 17, 2016; Las Vegas, NV, USA; A general view of the “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign on the Las Vegas strip on Las Vegas Blvd. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports /

In Stars and Sticks’ first NHL expansion mock draft, the Washington Capitals will be losing a valuable young player.

The NHL hasn’t had an expansion draft in a little over 15 years. This summer, the Vegas Golden Knights will be joining the league as an expansion team. With a new team comes a new and improved version of the expansion draft. Every team, including the Washington Capitals, are going to lose someone. Some teams will lose better players than others.

It’s hard to predict precisely what the Golden Knights will do. Are they going to work to be competitive early? Do they outright tank? How is Vegas going to build their roster? The Golden Knights have a ton of options. For McPhee, this is a general manager’s dream. Usually, when you join a front office, you have to deal with the previous administration’s faults and bad contracts. McPhee is starting with as clean of a slate as possible.

The rules for the expansion draft can be found here. Vegas must select at least 14 forwards, nine defensemen and three goalies. Teams must expose a goalie, but can choose to expose either 10 skaters (seven forwards and three defensemen) or eight skaters (four forwards and four defensemen). Also, teams must expose a certain number of players who fit the games played requirement of 40 games in the 2016-17 season or 70 over the past two. Vegas must draft at least 20 players who have a contract for the 2017-18 season (RFAs don’t have a deal for the 2017-18 season).

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This team will be built more for the future, but also with the present in mind. The Golden Knights have to build a strong foundation while also creating enough buzz in a new hockey market to get butts in seats. At the end of the day, that’s going to be very vital for them. Let’s start off with the Metropolitan Division.

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The Washington Capitals will lose Philipp Grubauer to the Golden Knights. Nate Schmidt is another option, but Vegas won’t be able to resist a young goalie ready to prove he’s a number one starter. This is probably the best realistic case scenario for the Washington Capitals. They lose a guy who, considering his role on the team, is relatively easy to replace compared to other positions.

Washington Capitals fans rejoice as public enemy number one is out of the Eastern Conference again. Carl Hagelin is a very solid third line forward when he’s healthy. And he’s someone McPhee is familiar with.

The Columbus Blue Jackets are going to lose a pretty good player no matter what Vegas decides to do. Jonas Korpisalo is a very tempting option, but the Golden Knights can’t turn down a center with as much upside as Karlsson.

Devante Smith-Pelly is a bit of a broken player, but he at least has the ability to score. After a down season in 2016-17, perhaps DSP needs a change of scenery. The Devils don’t really have much to offer Vegas and Smith-Pelly at least has upside, unlike Ben Lovejoy.

Lee Stempniak is on a mission to play for every NHL team and the Vegas Golden Knights will happily help him on his noble quest.

Even if the New York Islanders protect four defensemen, Ryan Pulock might be left exposed. If he is left unprotected, he’ll get a well-deserved chance to play with the Golden Knights.

This could be a guy the Golden Knights pick exclusively to trade for a good draft pick. But even if they keep him, Michael Grabner can be an early mentor for the young guys in Vegas. He’s overcome a lot and certainly knows the devotion and commitment it takes to be successful in the NHL. Not only that, Grabner can be productive as well.

Ultimately, this came down to Matt Read or Scott Laughton. Vegas needs to be building for the future, so the latter is a better pick for them. Laughton should get some NHL playing time with the Golden Knights.

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The Vegas Golden Knights will probably get a draft pick for not picking a better player than Beleskey. But he could wind up being a pretty solid player for them. As recently as the 2015-16 season, Beleskey was quite good. So he’s a pretty darn good guy to take a flyer on, especially if they can fool the Bruins into giving them a draft pick.

Vegas will get their second goaltender from the Buffalo Sabres. Linus Ullmark has a lot of potential and has just about every physical tool you want to see in a goalie. He could develop into a number one goalie, or at least a very good backup.

Why would the Golden Knights take someone who had just two goals last season? Because Riley Sheahan has proven to be a better scorer than this in the past. He has one year left on his deal, so Vegas will likely flip him by the trade deadline.

While the Florida Panthers will likely do something to make sure they don’t have to expose Jason Demers, right now the team has to either expose him or Aaron Ekblad. Demers is the obvious choice. He’d give Vegas a quality top four defenseman.

The Vegas Golden Knights simply aren’t going to be able to pass up on Charles Hudon. He has excellent AHL numbers, but has never been given an extended look in the NHL. Hudon is precisely the kind of player Vegas should be targeting.

Ottawa will either protect Marc Methot or Cody Ceci. My guess is they go with the latter. Whichever of the two they don’t protect, that’s who Vegas will go with. The Golden Knights should hope Methot isn’t protected because he’d give them a quality veteran defenseman.

Tampa Bay is going to lose a quality forward to the Vegas Golden Knights. Vladislav Namestnikov is a promising forward who has been a bit of a Swiss Army knife for the Lightning, filling in all over the lineup.

Vegas gets a promising young defenseman who has already proven he can capably handle a third pairing role.

The Vegas Golden Knights get a proven defenseman who Joel Quenneville has grown to trust quite a bit. Trevor van Riemsdyk gets a well deserved chance to get more playing time with the Golden Knights.

Vegas goes with three young goalies, getting their third one from the Colorado Avalanche. The Golden Knights could easily flip one of them for even more assets because young goalies are worth a lot in today’s NHL. Grubauer is likely a keeper, while Ullmark and Pickard should fight for a backup spot.

Dallas is probably going to lose a defenseman in the expansion draft. Stephen Johns will be the most likely candidate to be unprotected and picked. He’s proven to be quite capable, handling a second pairing role at times.

Jonas Brodin is a perfect pick for the Vegas Golden Knights. He has top pairing potential and he’s under contract at a very reasonable cap hit. Brodin gets a break, as he was stuck behind Ryan Suter and Jason Spurgeon in Minnesota.

A quality center who has a ridiculously cheap cap hit for the foreseeable future? This is an early Christmas present for the Vegas Golden Knights. Calle Jarnkrok should be a fan favorite with his versatility and quality two-way play.

Even if he’s the worst one in recent memory, how many times can you get a first overall pick? Nail Yakupov gets a fresh start in Vegas, perhaps getting some chemistry with fellow Russian Vadim Shipachyov.

Adam Lowry has proven to be a very capable bottom six forward. Best of all, he’s relatively cheap as well. Vegas gets a quality forward, one who could grow into a long-term asset for them.

The Anaheim Ducks will likely do some fancy maneuvering to ensure they can protect him. But as it stands right now, they won’t be able to protect Jakob Silfverberg. Vegas hopes this remains true, as he’s a proven scorer.

Not surprisingly, the Arizona Coyotes won’t have much to offer the Vegas Golden Knights. Luke Schenn might be the best option, and that’s telling of how bad the rest of the options are. He’s a decent defenseman, but he’s a third pairing guy at best.

Vegas will happily take a draft pick or two from the Calgary Flames to ensure they take Troy Brouwer off their hands. His contract was awful before the ink dried, and it’s looking even worse a year later.

Yet another veteran forward who the Vegas Golden Knights will get draft picks to take. Benoit Pouliot has had a rough go of it this season, but his underlying stats suggest he needs a fresh start. Don’t be surprised if he’s a quality player in Vegas.

The Vegas Golden Knights will jump all over Brayden McNabb. Something to watch moving forward, though – how much do the Kings offer them to take on Marian Gaborik or Dustin Brown?

San Jose could go in a number of directions as far as protecting players, so this should be interesting. Chris Tierney’s a quality depth forward who should grow into a third line role.

Other than the Avalanche and the Coyotes, no team will offer Vegas a thinner selection of players than the Vancouver Canucks. Their most intriguing player is Anton Rodin, so Vegas should go with him. The rest of their unprotected players are probably going to be known quantities, and not good ones either.

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