2017 NHL expansion draft


The 2017 NHL expansion draft was an expansion draft conducted by the National Hockey League on June 18–20, 2017 to fill the roster of the league's expansion team for the 2017–18 season, the Vegas Golden Knights. The team's selections were announced on June 21 during the NHL Awards ceremony at T-Mobile Arena.
After Las Vegas' expansion bid was approved in June 2016, the Golden Knights began formal operations in March 2017. Vegas selected one player from each of the league's 30 franchises, with 19 going on to play for Vegas in their inaugural season. A further three inaugural-season players were acquired in trades relating to the Golden Knights' draft selections. As of the start of the 2025–26 season, four of those 22 players remain with the franchise, with three having continuous tenures.

Background

In the off-season before the 2015–16 NHL season, the NHL opened a window for ownership groups to bid for expansion teams for the first time since 2000. Two ownership groups submitted bids to the league: one each from Las Vegas and Quebec City. The Vegas bid would make the NHL the first "Big Four" major professional sports league to place a franchise in Las Vegas, though the league previously had a limited presence in the city with annual pre-season games, beginning with an outdoor game in 1991 and the Frozen Fury series held each year since 1997. Quebec City was previously home of the Quebec Nordiques, a team that had moved in 1995 and became the Colorado Avalanche; it has hosted occasional preseason games since that time, and has constructed a new ice hockey arena to receive a potential NHL team. Due to political delays, a bid was not submitted from Seattle despite the presence of three different ownership groups publicly campaigning to start an NHL team; a number of other potential expansion sites, such as Kansas City and Saskatchewan, declined to place bids because of cost concerns. Expansion to Seattle was later approved in 2018, with the franchise entering the league in 2021.
Las Vegas was approved for the 2017–18 NHL season on June 22, 2016; at the same time the Quebec City bid was deferred, largely because of concerns over the Canadian dollar's value and the geographic balance of the league's conferences. Former Washington Capitals general manager George McPhee was named Las Vegas' first general manager on July 13, with the team's name revealed as the Vegas Golden Knights on November 22. Five days after formally entering the league on March 1, 2017, the Golden Knights signed Canadian center Reid Duke to a three-year, entry-level contract, making him the franchise's first player. A month later, on April 13, recently-fired Florida Panthers head coach Gerard Gallant was named Vegas' first head coach. The same month, the NHL announced that the Golden Knights' expansion draft selections would be announced alongside the annual NHL Awards ceremony at T-Mobile Arena, the Golden Knights' home arena.

Rules

The initial proposal of the rules for the draft was decided upon by the NHL in March 2016. They allowed each team to either protect seven forwards, three defencemen, and one goaltender or one goaltender and eight skaters regardless of position. Because the NHL wanted to ensure the competitive viability of the new team, the number of protected players allowed was lower than in the 2000 NHL expansion draft which populated the Minnesota Wild and Columbus Blue Jackets, when each team could protect nine forwards, five defencemen, and one goalie, or two goalies, three defencemen, and seven forwards. Under these rules, each of the 30 teams would lose one top-four defenceman or third-line forward per number of new teams. Only players with more than two years of professional experience — NHL or AHL as defined in the collective bargaining agreement—were included in the draft.
Teams had to submit their list of protected players by June 17, 2017. They had to expose at least two forwards and one defenceman that had played at least 40 games in the 2016–17 season or more than 70 games in the 2015–16 season and 2016–17 seasons combined, and had to still be under contract for the 2017–18 season. The exposed goaltender had to either be under contract for the 2017–18 season or have become a restricted free agent following the 2016–17 season. At least 20 of the 30 players selected by Vegas had to be under contract for the 2017–18 season, and they were required to select a minimum of 14 forwards, nine defencemen and three goaltenders. Vegas was granted a 48-hour window prior to the draft to sign any pending free agent that was left unprotected. If a team lost a player to Vegas during this signing window they did not have a player selected from their roster during this draft.
Teams were required to protect any contracted players with no move clauses with one of the team's slots for protected players, unless the contract expired on July 1, 2017, in which case the NMC was considered void for the draft. Players whose NMCs had limited no trade clauses had to still be protected, and any players with NMCs were able to waive the clause and become eligible for the expansion draft.
Any player picked in the expansion draft could not have their contract bought out until after the completion of the 2017–18 season. Vegas was guaranteed the same odds in the draft lottery as the third–lowest finishing team from the 2016–17 NHL season for the 2017 NHL entry draft; after their first season they were subject to the same draft lottery rules as the other teams in the league. The NHL's deputy commissioner, Bill Daly, said that teams that did not follow the expansion draft rules would face penalties, saying "It's a loss of draft picks and/or players."

Protected players

The protected players' list was published on June 18, 2017.

Eastern Conference

* and Italics: Players protected for contractual reasons.
PositionBostonBuffaloDetroitFloridaMontrealOttawaTampa BayToronto
ForwardsDavid BackesTyler EnnisJustin AbdelkaderAleksander BarkovPaul ByronDerick BrassardRyan Callahan*Tyler Bozak
ForwardsPatrice Bergeron*Marcus FolignoAndreas AthanasiouNick BjugstadPhillip DanaultRyan DzingelTyler JohnsonConnor Brown
ForwardsDavid Krejci*Zemgus GirgensonsAnthony ManthaJonathan HuberdeauJonathan DrouinMike HoffmanAlex KillornNazem Kadri
ForwardsBrad MarchandEvander KaneFrans Nielsen*Vincent TrocheckAlex GalchenyukJean-Gabriel PageauNikita KucherovLeo Komarov
ForwardsRiley NashJohan LarssonGustav NyquistBrendan GallagherZack SmithVladislav NamestnikovJosh Leivo
ForwardsDavid PastrnakKyle Okposo*Tomas TatarMax PaciorettyMark StoneOndrej PalatMatt Martin
ForwardsRyan SpoonerRyan O'ReillyHenrik ZetterbergAndrew ShawKyle TurrisSteven Stamkos*James van Riemsdyk
DefencemenZdeno Chara*Nathan BeaulieuDanny DeKeyserAaron EkbladJordie BennCody CeciBraydon CoburnConnor Carrick
DefencemenTorey KrugJake McCabeMike GreenAlex PetrovicJeff Petry*Erik KarlssonVictor Hedman*Jake Gardiner
DefencemenKevan MillerRasmus RistolainenNick JensenMark PysykShea WeberDion Phaneuf*Anton StralmanMorgan Rielly
DefencemenKeith Yandle*
GoaltenderTuukka RaskRobin LehnerJimmy HowardJames ReimerCarey Price*Craig AndersonAndrei VasilevskiyFrederik Andersen

PositionCarolinaColumbusNew JerseyNY IslandersNY RangersPhiladelphiaPittsburghWashington
ForwardsPhillip Di GiuseppeCam AtkinsonTaylor HallAndrew Ladd*Kevin HayesSean CouturierSidney Crosby*Nicklas Backstrom
ForwardsElias LindholmBrandon Dubinsky*Adam HenriqueAnders LeeChris KreiderValtteri Filppula*Patric HornqvistAndre Burakovsky
ForwardsBrock McGinnNick Foligno*Kyle PalmieriJohn Tavares*J. T. MillerClaude Giroux*Phil Kessel*Lars Eller
ForwardsVictor RaskScott Hartnell*Travis ZajacRick NashScott LaughtonEvgeni Malkin*Marcus Johansson
ForwardsJeff SkinnerBoone JennerDerek Stepan*Brayden SchennEvgeny Kuznetsov
ForwardsJordan Staal*Brandon SaadMika ZibanejadWayne SimmondsAlexander Ovechkin
ForwardsTeuvo TeravainenAlexander WennbergMats ZuccarelloJakub VoracekTom Wilson
DefencemenTrevor CarrickSeth JonesAndy GreeneJohnny Boychuk*Nick HoldenShayne GostisbehereBrian DumoulinJohn Carlson
DefencemenJustin FaulkRyan MurrayJohn MooreTravis HamonicRyan McDonaghRadko GudasKris Letang*Matt Niskanen
DefencemenRyan MurphyDavid SavardMirco MullerNick LeddyMarc Staal*Brandon ManningOlli MaattaDmitry Orlov
DefencemenDamon SeversonAdam PelechJustin Schultz
DefencemenRyan Pulock
GoaltenderScott DarlingSergei Bobrovsky*Cory SchneiderThomas GreissHenrik Lundqvist*Anthony StolarzMatt MurrayBraden Holtby