The hockey world thought they knew what was coming. Back in June 2017, the general consensus among fans and analysts was that the Vegas Golden Knights were going to be bad. Like, historically bad. People looked at the rules, saw the protected lists, and assumed George McPhee was building a roster of fourth-liners and bottom-pair defensemen. We were wrong. Everyone was wrong.
The 2017 NHL expansion draft wasn't just a player acquisition exercise; it was a heist. It changed how every front office in the league operates. Before Vegas, expansion teams were expected to suffer through a decade of basement-dwelling misery. Remember the 1990s? The Ottawa Senators won ten games in their inaugural season. Vegas? They went to the Stanley Cup Final in year one.
The Day the Leverage Shifted
Everything centered on the protection rules. In previous drafts, teams could protect a massive chunk of their roster, leaving only scraps. For 2017, the NHL changed the math. Teams could protect seven forwards, three defensemen, and one goalie, or eight skaters of any position and one goalie. This seems fair on paper. It wasn't.
Teams were terrified of losing players for nothing. That fear became McPhee's greatest weapon. He didn't just pick players; he extorted teams. He told GMs, "I’ll take this guy you hate unless you give me a first-round pick and a prospect to take this other guy instead."
Take the Florida Panthers. This is still the gold standard for front-office mismanagement. They essentially gave Vegas Jonathan Marchessault—a guy who would go on to win a Conn Smythe—just so the Golden Knights would also take Reilly Smith. They traded two-thirds of a top line to protect... what? Nick Bjugstad? Alex Petrovic? It felt like a fever dream at the time, and it looks even worse now.
Why the 2017 NHL expansion draft worked so well for Vegas
Vegas didn't just get lucky. They exploited the "salary cap era" mindset. In 2017, several teams were in absolute cap hell. They viewed the expansion draft as a "get out of jail free" card. They paid Vegas in draft picks to take on bad contracts, not realizing that those "bad" players were actually quite good when given top-six minutes and a chip on their shoulder.
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James Neal. David Perron. Erik Haula. These weren't superstars, but they were established NHLers. When you put twenty guys in a room who have all been told by their former teams that they are expendable, you get a culture that is impossible to replicate. They called themselves the "Golden Misfits." It was a marketing gimmick that turned into a locker room identity that nearly won a championship in ten months.
The Side Deals That Broke the League
If you want to understand the 2017 NHL expansion draft, you have to look at the trades that happened in the shadows. The actual draft broadcast was almost secondary to the transactions happening behind the scenes.
The Anaheim Ducks gave up Shea Theodore—now a legitimate star—just to ensure Vegas took Clayton Stoner’s contract. The Minnesota Wild traded Alex Tuch to Vegas so they wouldn't lose Jonas Brodin or Matt Dumba. Think about that. The Golden Knights built a core of elite talent without using a single one of their own organic draft picks. They just let other GMs panic.
Columbus did it too. They gave Vegas a first-round pick and a second-round pick just to make sure they took William Karlsson. At the time, Karlsson was a depth center with a career-high of nine goals. In his first year with Vegas? He scored 43. Nobody saw that coming. Not even McPhee. But by taking the "risk" on Karlsson, Vegas unlocked a superstar.
The Goaltending Masterstroke
Marc-André Fleury was the face of the franchise. It’s easy to forget that the Pittsburgh Penguins actually had to pay Vegas (a 2020 second-round pick) to make sure they took Fleury. Pittsburgh had Matt Murray, who had just won two Cups, and they couldn't keep both. Fleury went from being a backup in the 2017 playoffs to a Vezina-caliber starter in the desert.
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He gave them instant credibility. You can't overstate how much a veteran, smiling, beloved goalie stabilizes an expansion locker room. He was the anchor. Without Fleury, the "Misfit" magic probably fizzles out by November.
Misconceptions About the "Easy" Rules
A lot of salty fans from older franchises like to claim Vegas was "handed" a Cup contender. That’s a bit of a rewrite of history. Most analysts at the time, including those at ESPN and TSN, predicted Vegas would finish near the bottom of the Pacific Division.
The rules were more generous than the ones used for Nashville or Atlanta, sure. But the real reason Vegas succeeded was that they were the first expansion team to play in the analytics era. They prioritized speed and puck transition while everyone else was still trying to protect "grit."
- Vegas focused on players with high shot volumes.
- They exploited teams with expansion-exempt prospects.
- They stayed flexible with the cap.
- They didn't fall in love with "names."
Contrast this with the 2000 expansion draft. The Blue Jackets and Wild were picking from a pool of players that were mostly over the hill or career AHLers. In 2017, the talent density of the NHL was much higher. There were more "good" players than there were protection slots.
The Long-Term Impact on the Seattle Kraken
When Seattle came into the league in 2021, GMs had learned their lesson. The "Vegas Tax" was gone. Ron Francis tried to pull the same moves McPhee did—asking for high picks to lay off certain players—and the rest of the league just said, "No."
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GMs decided they would rather lose a good player for nothing than give Seattle extra assets. That’s why Seattle’s first year looked way more like a traditional expansion team. They didn't get the same volume of side deals. They didn't get a "William Karlsson" handed to them on a silver platter with a draft pick attached. The 2017 NHL expansion draft was a one-time market inefficiency that Vegas exploited perfectly.
Key Players and Where They Are Now
It's wild to look back at that original roster.
- William Karlsson: Still a cornerstone for the Knights. He's proven the 43-goal season wasn't a total fluke, even if his production leveled out.
- Jonathan Marchessault: Left for Nashville recently, but he’s the franchise's all-time leading scorer. Florida still regrets this.
- Shea Theodore: Still one of the smoothest skating defensemen in the league.
- Nate Schmidt: Picked from Washington, became a top-pair guy overnight, later traded to clear space for Alex Pietrangelo.
Most of these guys eventually moved on, but they stayed long enough to win a Stanley Cup in 2023. The "Misfit" core stayed remarkably intact for a long time. It proves that the foundation laid in June 2017 wasn't just a flash in the pan. It was a blueprint for a powerhouse.
What You Should Take Away From 2017
If you’re looking at the history of the league, this draft is the demarcation point between the "Old NHL" and the "New NHL." It taught front offices that depth is more valuable than loyalty. It taught us that "system players" can often become stars if you change the system.
Honestly, the biggest lesson is about leverage. If you have it, use it. George McPhee had the whole league over a barrel because he was the only one with cap space and open roster spots. He didn't just pick a team; he bullied 30 other men into giving him their future.
Actionable Insights for Hockey Fans and Analysts
To truly understand how a roster is built today, you have to look back at the scars left by this event.
- Watch the "Protection Lists": Whenever you see a trade happen near an expansion or even a trade deadline, look at who isn't being talked about. Usually, the trade is about protecting a specific asset from being lost.
- Evaluate "Depth" Differently: The 2017 draft showed that a "third-liner" on a deep team like Tampa or Pittsburgh is often a "first-liner" on a team with more opportunity.
- Value Draft Capital: Notice how GMs are now much more hesitant to trade first-round picks to solve short-term expansion problems. They saw what happened to Minnesota and Anaheim.
- Respect the Cap: The Golden Knights won because they were the only team in the league without "dead money" on their books. Staying flexible is often better than having a superstar on an unmovable contract.
The 2017 draft remains the most successful expansion project in professional sports history. It wasn't just luck, and it wasn't just the rules. It was a perfect storm of league-wide panic and one team's refusal to play nice. If you want to see how to build a championship culture from scratch, you start by looking at that night in Las Vegas.