Yup - the expansion rules were generous but the bigger part of it was teams also made horrible decisions.
If the three teams above don't do anything wonky the Knights end up with:
Florida: Petrovic
Columbus: Josh Anderson
Minnesota: Dumba
Plus some other teams made mistakes too:
Pittsburgh: Paying a 2nd to have them take Fleury instead of Murray
Anaheim: Trade Theodore instead of letting them take Vatanen or Manson
Tampa Bay: 2nd, 4th, Gusev for them to take Garrison
Really look at who they took and the roster wasn't that great, it was all mistakes of teams paying assets to protect the wrong people.
https://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/...ion-draft-now/
It's the net of those trades that made the Knights a contender, not the expansion draft itself:
Marchessault, Smith, Karlsson, Tuch, Haula, Fleury, Theodore, 1st, 2 2nds
for
Petrovic, Anderson, Dumba, Murray, & Manson
Doesn't really look like they would be a contender anymore does it?