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UPDATED: As Expansion Draft show reveals picks and details.

We have never seen anything like this in NHL history:

As near as we can tell, VGK consummated at least 8 trades prior to NHL teams having to submit their protected/exposed lists on Saturday.

— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) June 21, 2017

Those are only expected/rumored/reported pre-freeze deals. VGK bound to have secondary trades on tap, claiming a player, then flipping him.

— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) June 21, 2017

All these VGK deals have created quite a logjam. NHL GMs alternately awestruck/aggravated at how VGK GM George McPhee orchestrated it all.

— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) June 21, 2017

Many talking about "The Pledge." That is, if VGK did deal with team, VGK insisted that team not do any other deals that could harm VGK.

— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) June 21, 2017

All this, of course, The Pledge that is, was in the context of pre-freeze.

— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) June 21, 2017

So from the moment a team did a deal with VGK, that team couldn't make pre-freeze trade with a third party if it affected VGK in any way.

— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) June 21, 2017

Many rival GMs concede McPhee did excellent job of maximizing his leverage in unique situation, likes of which has never been seen in NHL.

— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) June 21, 2017

There are, as we speak, a ton of leaks coming out from the usual suspects (McKenzie, Darren Dreger, Pierre LeBrun, etc.) about who Vegas will announce as their Expansion Draft selections. I'm going to try to summarize (and source) -- feel free to correct me or suggest additions, this is on the fly like I've never seen.

First player is likely to be the official expansion selection, anything afterwards is sweetener to induce McPhee from other assets. Please remember that nothing is confirmed until tonight:

MIN Erik Haula F + Alex Tuch F (for VGK 3rd round pick in 2017 or 2018) (Michael Russo)
PIT Marc-Andre Fleury G + 2020 2nd round pick (McKenzie)
ANA Clayton Stoner D + Shea Theodore D (McKenzie)
CHI Trevor van Riemsdyk D (Frank Seravelli)
CBJ William Karlsson F + David Clarkson F + 2017 1st round pick + 2019 2nd round pick (Aaron Portzline)
FLA Jonathan Marchessault F + Reilly Smith F (for VGK 2018 4th round pick) (McKenzie)
NYI J.F. Berube G + Mikhail Grabovski F + Jake Bischoff D + 2017 1st round pick + 2019 2nd round pick (McKenzie, Arthur Staple)
TOR Brendan Leipsic F (Dreger)
DAL Cody Eakin F (Dreger)
OTT Marc Methot D (LeBrun)
NSH James Neal F (McKenzie)
MTL Alexander Emelin D (Seravelli)
STL David Perron F (Raphaël Doucet)
TBL Jason Garrison D + Nikita Gusev F + 2017 2nd round pick + 2018 4th round pick (McKenzie, Joe Smith)
LAK Brayden McNabb D (John Hoven)
DET Tomas Nosek F (Craig Custance)
PHI Pierre-Edouard Bellemare F (Custance)
NYR Oscar Lindberg F (Dreger)
CGY Deryk Engelland D (John Shannon)
SJS David Schlemko D (LeBrun)
EDM Griffin Reinhart D (Shannon)
BOS Colin Miller D (Elliotte Friedman‏)
WSH Nate Schmidt D (Isabelle Khurshudyan)
BUF William Carrier F + 2017 6th round pick (Seravelli)
NJD Jon Merrill D (Seravelli)

These picks were revealed on the Expansion Draft show:

COL Calvin Pickard G
ARI Teemu Pulkkinen F
VAN Luca Sbisa D
WPG Chris Thorburn F + 2017 1st round pick + 2019 3rd round pick (VGK loses CBJ 2017 1st round pick to WPG)
CAR Connor Brickley F + 2017 5th-round pick

But remember, some of these guys may not be long for the desert:

BTW, as I understand, VGK will only announce their expansion draft "claims" from each team today. Trades/flips etc would come tomorrow.

— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) June 21, 2017

All the damage won't be revealed for a couple days yet. But building the foundation of a franchise with at least three first-round draft picks, Tuch, and Theodore is...pretty good.

We have never seen this -- and I suspect that we never will again.

There's no way we see anything like what McPhee is doing ever again? I doubt the other teams would allow it. This is so crazy

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) June 21, 2017

***

On another day, this would be big news, but not today. But the Golden Knights have announced their first home date: October 10th at 7 PM against the Arizona Coyotes.

Before that, Vegas will debut on the road: October 6th at Dallas, then Arizona on the very next night.

***

We've all seen the new jerseys, and I'll just say that I like the white a lot better than the gray. I don't hate the white gloves -- if they keep them. But let's be honest about my sartorial opinions, I can barely dress myself:

At the adidas x NHL party. You can tell the sports writers from the fashion people. #nerdprompreparty

— Jen Neale (@MsJenNeale) June 21, 2017

Your Golden Knights pic.twitter.com/3vWjakZYTX

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) June 21, 2017

Soon, we'll be playing games. Today, we chose MeiGray as "Exclusive Game-Worn Source of the Golden Knights."

More: https://t.co/VVlSbQqzrr pic.twitter.com/Gq9SMRJlXF

— Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) June 21, 2017

++++I AM CURRENTLY LOOKING FOR ADVERTISERS! If you, or anyone you know would be interested in placing an ad here at HockeyBuzz, then send me a PM!++++

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