Quote:
Originally Posted by Enoch Root
My god what a brutal take.
Players aren't children that you love equally. They are assets to their respective teams. Each team was allowed to protect 10 or their most prized assets, along with their young players and prospects. Anything beyond that is, more or less, expendable (in relation to the ones that were kept).
Comparing that to losing your children? JC
Vegas wasn't given a stacked deck, they were given a bunch of players that were (in fact) deemed expendable, relative to the better players on their teams. The fact that Vegas has turned that into a cup run is astounding. It is borderline miraculous. All I can do is tip my hat to them.
But suggesting they were gifted this is a terrible take, IMO.
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It was an
analogy.
When the NHL
forced teams to make all their players expendable except for 7 forwards, 3 defencemen, and a goalie, that is not teams "choosing to make certain players expendable", that is the NHL waltzing into each team's roster situation and
forcing them to expose players. Let me guess, if the NHL said each team can only protect one forward, and the Flames chose to protect Gaudreau, that would mean the Flames "deemed Monahan to be expendable"?
Bottom line, I think it's ridiculous to think that the Flames "deemed" Engelland to be expendable. They wanted to keep Engelland, just like they wanted to keep many of their other assets. It was the league who
forced them to only protect a certain number and expose the rest. It was a hard decision that IMO the Flames shouldn't have had to make.
The Vegas management team was absolutely given an extremely generous system within which to piece together its roster. They got to pick many quality players from around the league. Good on Vegas for making the most of the opportunity, and good for them for accomplishing what they've accomplished. However, shame on the NHL for handing an expansion team an opportunity to assemble an excellent roster right off the bat. What the NHL should have done instead is give teams more player protection, and give Vegas more draft picks to help them build a good team a few years down the road.