History was made on Wednesday night as the NHL 31st team took shape.
During the 2017 NHL awards show, the Vegas Golden Knights introduced their 30 expansion draft picks in front of their fans at T-Mobile Arena.
In one night, the @GoldenKnights created a roster.
— NHL (@NHL) June 22, 2017
Here's who they snagged. #VegasDraft pic.twitter.com/ZiFoh3ZZSW
It was the NHL's first expansion draft since the Columbus Blue Jackets and Minnesota Wild joined the league in 2000.
The picks were announced in four separate segments, during which trades between the Golden Knights and other teams were announced as well.
In addition to the 30 players added via expansion draft, the Golden Knights also added seven more players and 10 draft picks through 10 trades.
The @GoldenKnights have a team. Here are all the #VegasDraft selections. pic.twitter.com/Ly2HqW71i9
— NHL (@NHL) June 22, 2017
Those trades weren’t your traditional NHL trades, but rather deals worked out to give the new Vegas team assets in order to not pick certain unprotected players from other teams.
For example, the Islanders gave up a 1st round pick, a 2nd round pick and two players so that the Golden Knights wouldn’t take Brock Nelson, Josh Bailey or Calvin de Haan from their roster.
Vegas had a number of notable picks including Jonathan Marchessault, James Neal, Marc Methot, David Perron, Alexei Emelin, Jason Garrison, Deryk Engelland, Brayden McNabb and Marc-Andre Fleury.
The latter four were all on hand, making them the first members of the Golden Knights to dawn the brand new grey jersey.
The next step in a busy two week stretch for the NHL is the 2017 entry draft, which takes starts with round one on Friday before finishing up on Saturday.
