The NHL’s newest franchise, the Vegas Golden Knights, will officially reveal their inaugural roster during the NHL expansion draft Wednesday night.
However, in a potential plot twist, Wild GM Chuck Fletcher will try to convince them to stay away from the three best players the Wild left exposed for the taking.
Per StarTribune’s Wild beat-writer Michael Russo, Fletcher would like to make a deal with Vegas before they submit their official selections.
Fletcher will reportedly be in the ear of Vegas GM George McPhee negotiating a potential agreement to steer Vegas away from the likes of Eric Staal, Matt Dumba, or Marco Scandella. They are the three players left unprotected – and speculated to be the most attractive to Vegas.
If Fletcher can secure an agreement with Vegas, Minnesota would throw in a couple of deal-sweeteners (though what those might be is pure speculation at this point) to entice the Golden Knights to select restricted free agent forward Eric Haula from the Wild’s unprotected list.
TSN’s Bob McKenzie echoed the “speculation” that Fletcher would like to work something out with Vegas, if he hasn’t already:
There is also considerable speculation MIN has or will have deal with VGK to lay off Scandella/Dumba in exchange for a prospect.
— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) June 20, 2017
Last week, all NHL teams submitted their ‘protected players’ lists. The Wild’s list of protected players included seven forwards, three defenseman, and one goaltender. All ‘protected’ lists submitted by NHL teams means those players listed are off-limits to the expansion team out of Sin City.
The league will officially unveil Vegas’ expansion draft selections during Wednesday night’s NHL Awards Show, which you can watch on NBC Sports Network at 7pm central time.
