When the NHL first introduced the rules under which the Vegas Golden Knights would be making their expansion draft selections, much of the hockey world immediately believed that they would be a disaster for the first few seasons. Now as GM George McPhee has held all the cards in the lead-up to the draft, the Golden Knights seem poised to acquire a huge pool of young talent right away.
Much of that young talent will come at the cost of not selecting the best NHL-ready players from around the league, as deals with Anaheim and Minnesota point to the Golden Knights avoiding some of the best available players. Shea Theodore and Alex Tuch are fine prizes, but players like Sami Vatanen and Eric Staal would have likely made a bigger impact in the first year.
So, after the team signed Vadim Shipachyov and may still be able to acquire players like James Neal, Marc Methot or Brock Nelson who exactly will be their best player? After all the dust settles, and the Golden Knights head into the 2017-18 season who will open as the face of the franchise and player anointed to carry the load for them in their first year?
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