That's what kills me about all these people whining about vegas making it to the final. They managed to take players other teams didn't feel were important enough to protect and turn them into a cohesive unit. How many of their roster have had breakout years?? William Karlsson!! Flower is playing better than ever! This was not handed to Vegas. They made smart selections, trades, and waiver pickups. Their team trusts each other. Gallant is fantastic. I'm an Avs fan, but I gotta say I'm proud.
I’m going to start off by saying that if I said I thought Vegas would be this good, I’d be a damn liar. I, frankly, don’t remember my exact attitude toward Vegas in the immediate aftermath of the expansion draft/at the beginning of the season, but I think I expected them to be like, a bubble playoff team. Because I follow a lot of writers and analysts, I’m sometimes complicit in the same wonky structure of evaluating players. Hooooo boy, was everybody very very wrong about everything involving Vegas.
But not only did Vegas take players other teams didn’t feel were important enough to protect, they outsmarted them in the process. A lot of GMs overreacted and made trades to protect players they thought were more valuable to their teams when Vegas probably didn’t want a lot of those players anyway. I think maybe the only true “lucky break” Vegas got was that Pittsburgh was forced to choose between their two goalies. But Vegas could’ve just as easily not selected MAF, and even then, nobody expected MAF to have as fantastic of a year as he’s had.
Vegas deserves a hell of a lot of credit for scouting the teams really well and figuring out a combination of 1) who was good and 2) who was undervalued by his team (and therefore would be unprotected or traded as part of a deal to protect somebody else). I think they did a better job they knew they could do because they didn’t expect to win like this in their first year.
Gallant’s coaching style also probably deserves a hell of a lot of credit. There’s a quote going around about not benching players for one mistake, since they’ll just play worried. For a lot of these guys, that was probably new. (I know it was for Eakin.) That certainly didn’t hurt things, I’m sure.
I don’t really get whining about Vegas making it to the final, frankly. You can’t spend the entire season going “the NHL’s the best league because anything can happen and all it takes is one week for things to change dramatically” and then complain when…. “anything” happens.
I don’t think it’s making a mockery of the league. If it makes a mockery of anything, it’s making a mockery of the way a lot of GMs decide how valuable a player is to a team. If that forces the league to change, I don’t think it’ll be a bad thing. Hell, if we get 31 teams playing with Vegas’ system, it’ll be an absolute ton of fun to watch.
Vegas was absolutely brilliant in how it constructed this team, from the expansion draft to waiver pickups like Malcom Subban. Other teams made poor decisions, sure, but Vegas capitalized on them (in particular, I’m thinking about Florida.)
And, honestly, I think this has the potential to change a lot about how front offices evaluate players. Will it? Who knows, because the league is so stubborn and resistant to change, but it definitely could.
jbbartram-illu
germansingergirl
jacobvanloon
stormborns
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