the expansion process was generous to them for a few reasons IMO. and yes I am still impressed at what they pulled off as I didn't think their roster was as good as it was
protection limits from other clubs- especially in a cap world if you have a pick of a teams 4th best d or 3rd line forwards, you can build a really deep team- especially if you choose cost effectively.
salary cap/floor- cap has some teams willing to part with good players that are just too rich for their structure. as an expansion team you don't mind taking them to get to floor
what I thought they would be missing is the high end talent- but I guess 2 things happened- the guys they grabbed (esp from FLA, CBJ, MINN) were better than I thought (year one) but also as a team in a cool city and with lots of spending room , and lots of picks- as easy as year one or two to grab marquee UFAs or pending UFAs and slot them in
so different than any previous iteration
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