To the delight of armchair general managers everywhere, TSN released their on Friday, making it easy to imagine the future roster of the Las Vegas Knights, who I will continue to call the Las Vegas Knights until the end of time because “Vegas Golden Knights” is a really stupid name.
Ahem.
There are all sorts of rules and stipulations that you have to keep in mind as you put your roster together: you need at least 14 forwards, 9 defencemen, and 3 goaltenders. At least 20 of the 30 players you select must be signed through the 2017-18 season. And the total team salary cap must be between 60-100% of the 2016-17 salary cap.
It’s a lot to keep in mind, so I say, forget all of that. I drafted my Las Vegas Knights with just one stipulation: I could only select former Canucks.
The idea came from , who shared a roster his friend had made. The roster I came up with is very similar, which isn’t surprising, but with a few differences.
It’s not quite possible to do the entire expansion draft using just former Canucks, as not every team has a former Canuck on their roster. As a result, I was only able to draft 21 of 30 players, to which TSN rudely informed me that I did not have a “valid team.” Still, let’s take a look at the roster:
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The forwards are a pretty motley crew, but Nick Bonino, Radim Vrbata, and Alex Burrows are at least a credible second line. Unfortunately, these Knights don’t have anyone else to play on the first line.
Shawn Matthias, Dale Weise, and Jordan Schroeder will have to play in the top-six, while Hunter Shinkaruk, Cal O’Reilly, and Zac Dalpe will form the third line.
The Rangers presented a tough choice: Adam Clendening, Tanner Glass, or one-time, semi-blue-chip prospect Nicklas Jensen. For nostalgia’s sake, and because the team needed more forwards, I went with Glass. He’ll play all by himself on the fourth line.
We’ll just ignore for the moment that the Knights already have Vadim Shipachyov, Tomas Hyka, and Reid Duke signed to contracts, as they’re not former Canucks. They don’t count!
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The defence looks significantly better than the forwards, even if they’re older and running out of gas. You could reunite Dan Hamhuis with either Kevin Bieksa or Yannick Weber and hope for a decent second-pairing, with Jason Garrison partnering with Christian Ehrhoff to round out the top four.
That leaves Luca Sbisa on the third pairing, with either Bieksa or Weber, while Marc-Andre Gragnani watches from the press box. Remember Gragnani?
This team could have had Matt Bartkowski as well. It was a tough choice when it came to the Flames: Bartkowski or Hunter Shinkaruk? I initially went to select Bartkowski, but when I went to click with my right pointer finger, my left hand took out a knife and cut it off. Somehow, through the spurting blood and pain, I managed to select Shinkaruk instead.
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This suddenly looks like a legitimate strength for the Knights. Even if Roberto Luongo is getting old, he can still hold his own as a starter, while I still believe in Eddie Lack. Get him out of Carolina and he could have a bounceback year. And then Joe Cannata for depth. Not bad.
Here’s the lineup:
Radim Vrbata - Nick Bonino - Alex Burrows
Shawn Matthias - Jordan Schroeder - Dale Weise
Hunter Shinkaruk - Cal O’Reilly - Zac Dalpe
Tanner Glass
Jason Garrison - Christian Ehrhoff
Dan Hamhuis - Yannick Weber
Luca Sbisa - Kevin Bieksa
Marc-Andre Gragnani
Roberto Luongo
Eddie Lack
Joe Cannata
So, here’s the question: how much worse is this lineup compared to the Canucks?
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