SHR3D

How opposing GMs gifted Vegas the winningest team in hockey at the expansion draft: Bad Trades • Anaheim traded Vegas Shea Theodore so they take on Clayton Stoner's $3.25m x 1y contract. • Minnesota traded Vegas Alex Tuch so they would pick up Erik Haula instead of Matt Dumba or Eric Staal. • Pittsburgh traded Vegas a 2nd round pick (Drew Commesso) so they would take on Marc-Andre Fleury's $5.75m x 3y contract. • NY Islanders traded Vegas the 15th overall pick (Erik Brannstrom) and a 2nd round pick (Egor Sokolov) so they would take on Mikhail Grabovski's $5m x 1y contract. • Tampa Bay traded Vegas Nikita Gusev, a 2nd round pick (Alex Texier) and a 4th round pick (Paul Cotter) so would take on Jason Garrison's $4.6m x 1y contract • Winnipeg traded the 13th overall pick (Nick Suzuki) for the 24th overall pick so Vegas wouldn't select Tobias Enstrom. Bad Protections • Boston protected Kevan Miller over Colin Miller. • Los Angeles protected Derek Forbort over Brayden McNabb. • St. Louis protected Sobotka, Berglund, Reaves over David Perron and Jordan Binnington. Bad Everything • Florida traded them Reilly Smith for a 4th round pick, left Jonathan Marchessault exposed, while protecting Alex Petrovic & Mark Pysyk. • Columbus traded them a 1st & 2nd round pick so they would take on David Clarkson's $5.25m x 3y contract. Then they exposed 43-goal scorer William Karlsson. In total, they finessed: • Shea Theodore • Jonathan Marchessault • William Karlsson • Reilly Smith • David Perron • Brayden McNabb • Marc-Andre Fleury — • Alex Tuch (huge part of Jack Eichel package) • Nick Suzuki (huge part of Max Pacioretty package) • Drew Commesso (huge part of Robin Lehner package) • Colin Miller (huge part of Alec Martinez package) — • Erik Brannstrom & Egor Sokolov (became Mark Stone) • Erik Haula (became Nicolas Roy -> Mitch Marner) • Alex Texier (became Keegan Kolesar) • Nikita Gusev (became Daniil Chayka, Lukas Cormier, and Jakub Demek) • Paul Cotter (became Alex Holtz, Akira Schmid, and Mason Moe) The league's got no one to blame but themselves.