Quote:
Originally Posted by SebC
Your argument suggests that the team would at least be moderately successful if it had picked different players and/or a different coach, because it is inherent to the situation. Yet, only one expansion team in the NHL has had a >0.500 win% in their first season, and that was in 1925.
So maybe Vegas had a good read on which players, who were deemed unworthy of protection by their former teams, would respond to that situation. That's possible, but I think the most likely theory is that they have an exceptional coach for the group of players they've assembled. Occam's razor.
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They also had the most favourable expansion draft situation in at least recent NHL history. Really didn't matter who was coaching the expansion teams of the 90s, they weren't landing guys like James Neal, Marchessault or Reilly Smith.