EDITOR'S NOTE: I will be publishing "Gooch's Corner" on this blog once a month. I do support a specific NHL franchise (just see my Twitter), but I can assure you that I will never be biased in these pieces of "Gooch's Corner" that I write.
LAS VEGAS -- With the NHL announcing that the city of Las Vegas would be awarded with an NHL franchise at the start of the 2017-18 season, I was wondering something.
Could this new team affect fantasy?
Think about it, the NHL hasn't expanded since 2001-02, when the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Minnesota Wild came into the league.
Fantasy hockey wasn't really a big thing in 2001, now was it? (I chuckle to myself here)
Now, an NHL expansion means that teams will lose at least one of their players.
I'll put the expansion draft into an easy way to understand. This process is why teams lose at least one player, like I mentioned.
All NHL teams besides the expansion team must "unprotect" at least two forwards and one defensemen. The expanding team then must pick a certain number of forwards, defenseman, and in the process find goaltenders to play on their team. The expanding team must pick at least one player from all other NHL teams, but they can only select players that the other NHL do not protect. "Protected" players can not be chosen by the expanding team.
The expanding team also has a high selection in the draft right before the inaugural season. In this case, this Las Vegas team in the 2017 NHL Draft will be guaranteed a highest draft pick of no lower than sixth overall in the first round.
We'll see in the future what players will be playing for this Las Vega franchise.
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