Quote:
Originally Posted by PeteMoss
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.
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Yes, thank you.
Quite frankly, the fact that Florida gave up BOTH Smith and Marchessault just to do a salary dump drives me insane. Smith is also a very good two way player who had a bad year last year under horrible team circumstances and bad coaching post-Gallant. It doesn't surprise me at all to see him rebound. Neal was quite a steal as well.
This is more a factor of an expansion team arriving in the salary cap era than anything else. These are players that would never normally be available if not for salary cap relief.
That being said, Gallant is a helluva coach and Vegas is lucky he was available.