Alexei Emelin Archives - SinBin.vegas

July 1st is always a big day in the NHL, and especially for the Golden Knights who still had trades to make, players to sign, and rookie camp to wrap up. But when the sun set on the first day of the first league year in Vegas NHL history, there was just a single transaction that made waves.

The Golden Knights traded Alexei Emelin, who they selected from the Montreal Canadiens in the Expansion Draft, to the Nashville Predators for a 2019 3rd round pick. Vegas also agreed to retain $1.2M of Emelin’s salary, something they could not agree to do during the Expansion Draft. The trade gives the Golden Knights three 3rd round picks in the 2019 Draft and a 12 total in that draft.

Emelin was the most likely defenseman to be flipped from the Expansion Draft after Marc Methot was sent out earlier in the week. McPhee is likely to trade one more defenseman before the end of the long weekend. The leading candidates are Luca Sbisa, Clayton Stoner, or Jon Merrill.

On the first day of free agency, Vegas was expectedly quiet signing six players who will all likely play in the minor leagues next season.

Brad Hunt (D), Chris Casto (D), Paul Thompson (F), Stefan Matteau (F), T.J. Tynan (F), and Maxime Lagace (G)

All six were signed to contracts worth $650,000 if they play at the NHL level.

Hunt, Thompson, and Matteau have all have NHL experience. Matteau is also noted because he was selected in the 1st round (29th overall) of the 2012 Draft by the New Jersey Devils, and his father scored the goal on one of the greatest TV calls ever.

Finally, Development Camp wrapped up with a final scrimmage and a subsequent shootout. Here are some highlights.

All in all, Development Camp was more of an orientation to NHL in Vegas for the 44 players who participated, but that didn’t stop Alex Tuch and Erik Brannstrom from shining on the ice. Next time we’ll see Golden Knights on the ice will be on September 7th when rookies report to training camp.

GOLDEN KNIGHTS TRADE ALEXEI EMELIN (D) TO NASHVILLE FOR 2019 3RD ROUND PICK

By Ken Boehlke

On July 1, 2017

In Breaking News

Breaking Down McPhee’s Expansion Draft Interview With Sportsnet

By Ken Boehlke

On June 28, 2017

In Personnel, Team Ops

Since Wednesday when the Golden Knights made their 30 selections from the Expansion Draft and subsequent transactions, GM George McPhee hasn’t been answering a ton of questions, especially with local media. Luckily, the guys from Prime Time Sports had McPhee on the phone for 20 minutes and asked a lot of the unasked questions.

Since there’s so much in the interview (and a few others), we transcribed the most important quotes and offered our analysis on what it means about the Expansion Draft, upcoming trades, and the future of the Golden Knights. Here it is.

(There were) only one or two teams we didn’t get a deal with that we thought they would want to have a deal to protect their roster. -McPhee

Analysis: Best guesses would be Ottawa, Nashville, Montreal, and/or Washington. Clearly seeing both Ottawa and Montreal going back after Marc Methot and Alexei Emelin proves they were unable to reach a deal during the Expansion Draft. Washington makes sense because most expected Philipp Grubauer to be selected and Vegas ended up taking Nate Schmidt. A deal may have been talked about and never reached… and/or McPhee wanted to stick it to Washington. Nashville lost James Neal, hard to believe they were okay to just let that happen.

The rules were better for us, but we were dealing with some things that hadn’t been dealt with in the past like free agents. It didn’t make a lot of sense for us to claim free agents when they were going to be free in two weeks. Unless it was a throw away pick. -McPhee

Analysis: Wait, what? So what was Deryk Engelland? He hinted at it a bit in a previous presser to a SinBin.vegas question saying there were some things to not like about Calgary’s list, but this really cements it. Calgary had nothing else at all to claim in the eyes of McPhee, so they went ahead and essentially threw the pick away by signing a player they certainly would have gotten on July 1st. (Engelland’s surprise to getting handed a contract during the Expansion Draft further confirms this.)

There were some teams where if you just looked at their situation there weren’t many ways out. If we didn’t do a deal with them, and they traded a player and lost a player, then they lose and we lose too. We thought it was better to get a deal done rather than claim the second best player or third best player.

No Tradebacks! Wait, No, Tradebacks Are Fine

By Ken Boehlke

On June 28, 2017

In Personnel

Must select one player from every team, must select at least 17 forwards, must reach at least 60% of the salary cap, must select at least 20 players under contract, cannot buy players out until the end of 2017-18 season, and no trade backs until January 1st, 2018.

Those were just a few of the regulations the Golden Knights had to follow during the Expansion Draft. They were widely reported by hockey media before the draft (here and here are two of the best sources) and then the NHL put out a rules list the day Vegas was awarded a team. Reported by many was the rule prohibiting the Golden Knights from trading a player back to their original team. However, when the NHL released their rules, it was nowhere to be found.

Now, it appears that rule was on the books, but it had an important caveat.

Have confirmed this with Bill Daly just now: There is no blanket rule prohibiting a team from re-acquiring player lost in exp draft already
— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) June 26, 2017

The league just has to be satisfied it wasn't pre-cooked or part of a broader transaction that is attempting to circumvent exp draft rules
— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) June 26, 2017

The Jan. 1 rule is for players traded to other teams before the expansion draft; they can't be re-acquired prior to Jan. 1
— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) June 26, 2017

LeBrun tweeted this prior to the Marc Methot trade, and then later confirmed McPhee did indeed have discussions with the Senators on trading the blueliner back to Ottawa. Of course, it did not happen.

Expansion Draft Created Supply Outweighing Demand For Defenseman

By Ken Boehlke

On June 27, 2017

In Team Ops

Since the moment the Expansion Draft rules were released George McPhee found himself on a thin balance beam. One one side there’s the allure of picking the best 30 players available and stockpiling NHL ready talent that can not only win on the ice but also bring in high-level assets via trade. On the other side, there were ransoms being thrown out to lay off certain players, take on bad contracts, or completely give a team a pass in the Expansion Draft.

McPhee knew this was a difficult dance the whole way. They ran mock drafts and they saw what type of team they could put on the ice in year one. They had conversations with opposing GMs to see exactly how rich those ransoms were to turn a blind eye towards certain teams. And every chance he had, McPhee talked about the importance of staying upright on that balance beam.

Well now the Expansion Draft is over, the Entry Draft has come and gone, and free agency begins in less than a week, and at the moment McPhee and the Golden Knights are trying to maintain their balance, but there’s a clear wobble in the direction of taking on too many NHL contracts, specifically defenseman.

On June 21st the Golden Knights selected 14 defensemen. They ranged in talent from clear Top-4 to borderline NHLer, but all 14 were on NHL contracts. Vegas had created a surplus and it was time to start cashing in via trade.

A day after the draft a pair of defensemen were sent away. Trevor van Riemsdyk brought in a 2nd round pick from the Hurricanes and David Schlemko netted a 5th from Montreal. On its face, fine returns to begin trimming off the surplus of blueliners. But like in any form of commerce, demand must meet supply. Initially, it appeared that demand was high and the Golden Knights held the supply to make the most out of their 15 picks. But then Friday came and went, Saturday, Sunday, and it wasn’t until late Monday that the next defenseman was shipped away.

Marc Methot, the undisputed best talent of all the defensemen selected in the draft was sent to Dallas. The return, a 2nd round pick in 2020 and a goalie prospect the Golden Knights chose not to select 12 times while on the clock in Chicago.

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Tag: Alexei Emelin

Emelin Traded, Quiet Day Of Free Agency, Development Camp Shootout

GOLDEN KNIGHTS TRADE ALEXEI EMELIN (D) TO NASHVILLE FOR 2019 3RD ROUND PICK

Breaking Down McPhee’s Expansion Draft Interview With Sportsnet

No Tradebacks! Wait, No, Tradebacks Are Fine

Expansion Draft Created Supply Outweighing Demand For Defenseman

Points To Elimination

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