Quote:
Originally Posted by Hot_Flatus
It means everything. Every good GM in the league found a way to protect a player they felt they couldn't part with by way of a trade or arrangement with Vegas beforehand. It's not like each team was hamstrung by only protecting 9 players. They absolutely COULD have done something to protect him and many teams did with their own players.
The fact Poile didn't make any attempts to save Neal makes it pretty obvious they were content to see him go either way. He's certainly not a bad GM, he just knew that Neal was not going to be part of the team beyond his current deal and valued others far more than him.
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I think more than a few teams were forced to make players available that they were not content losing but that is the nature of the expansion draft. If every team was able to protect every single player they wanted to keep I have a feeling the Knights don't make the playoffs let alone get to the SCF last season.