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With how impressive this regular season was for the top three Metropolitan Division teams, it should come as no surprise that the good luck for the division kept rolling as the NJD and Philadelphia Flyers hit the jackpot and are drafting 1st and 2nd overall. Unfortunately for them, there are no McDavids or Matthews in this years draft, although it never hurts to pick first or second. The Hurricanes and Islanders are still waiting for their good luck to make an appearance, though you never know when it's gonna hit. Also as they say, sometimes you gotta make your own luck.
This is the first of a few Metro Division updates that I will periodically do this summer to keep tabs on the enemy. There will also be a post draft update and free agency recap. Below I will list the Metro teams in order of how they finished the regular season along with where they will be drafting and how their season concluded. With the addition of the 31st NHL Team, the Vegas Golden Knights, each team will lose a contributing member to the new franchise, that player will also be named below. The list will also include each team's UFAs and RFAs along with any major deals that happened leading into and following the Expansion Draft. Now that the Expansion Draft is all said and done, here's what each Metro team's agenda is going to look like.
Washington Capitals
55-19-8, 118 pts / 261GF(3rd)/177GA(1st) / First pick: 120th*
Lost to Pittsburgh in the second round. **COUGH 9-1 COUGH**
*First round pick traded to St. Louis for Kevin Shattenkirk. Second round pick traded to Montreal for Lars Eller. Third round pick traded to Buffalo for Mike Webber.
Your Vegas Golden Capital is: Nate Schmidt
UFA:
Forward: T.J. Oshie, Justin Williams, Daniel Winnik
Defense: Karl Alzner, Kevin Shattenkirk
RFA:
Forward: Brett Connolly, Andre Burakovsky, Evgeny Kuznetsov
Defense: Dmitry Orlov
Goalie: Phillip Grubauer
Cap room: $24.8 million / 11/23 NHL contracts (Per CapFriendy as of 6/22/17)
Trades:
Pittsburgh Penguins
50-21-11, 111 pts / 278 GF(1st)/229 GA(17th) / First pick: 31st
WON THE STANLEY CUP!!!
Your Vegas Golden Penguin is: Marc-Andre Fleury =( =( =(
(Three sad faces for the Three Cups he brought us Pens fans^)
UFA:
Forward: Nick Bonino, Matt Cullen, Chris Kunitz
Defense: Trevor Daley, Ron Hainsey, Mark Streit, Chad Ruhwedel
RFA:
Forward: Conor Sheary, Oskar Sundqvist, Josh Archibald
Defense: Brian Dumoulin, Justin Schultz
Cap room: $20.0 million / 16/23 NHL contracts
Trades:
- Pittsburgh trades 2020 2nd round draft pick to VGK in Fleury deal (Same link as above MAF link)
Columbus Blue Jackets
50-24-8, 108 pts / 247GF(6th)/193GA(2nd) / First pick: 86th*
Lost to Pittsburgh in the first round.
*First round pick traded to VGK in expansion draft. Second round pick awarded to Vancouver as compensation for signing John Tortorella. (Haha!)
Your Vegas Golden Blue Jacket is: William Karlsson
UFA:
Forward: Sam Gagner, Lauri Korpikoski
Defense: Kyle Quincey
RFA:
Forward: Josh Anderson, Alexander Wennberg
Goalie: Anton Forsberg
Cap room: $10.2 million / 21/23 NHL contracts
Trades:
New York Rangers
48-28-6, 102 pts / 253GF(4th)/216GA(t-12th) / First pick: 21st
Lost to Ottawa in the second round.
Your Vegas Golden Ranger is: Oscar Lindberg
UFA:
Forward: Tanner Glass
Defense: Brendan Smith
RFA:
Forward: Mika Zibanejad, Brandon Pirri, Jesper Fast, Matt Puempel (Signed 1 yr / $725 k deal 6/14/17)
Defense: Adam Clendening
Cap room: $13.3 million / 18/23 NHL contracts
Buy Outs:
New York Islanders
41-29-12, 94 pts / 239GF(10th)/238GA(23rd) / First pick: 46th
Did not qualify for playoffs.
Your Vegas Golden Islander is: Jean-Francois Berube
UFA:
Forward: Stephen Gionta
RFA:
Defense: Calvin De Haan
Cap room: $5.5 million / 21/23 contracts
Trades:
- NYI trade Mikhail Grabovski, defenceman Jake Bischoff, a 2017 1st round draft pick and a 2019 2nd round pick to the VGK in Berube deal.
- Air Jordan: Islanders acquire Eberle in one-for-one (Ryan Strome) swap with Oilers
Philadelphia Flyers
39-33-10, 88 pts / 212GF(t-20th)/231GA(19th) / First pick: 2nd(moved up from 13th via draft lottery)
Did not qualify for playoffs.
Your Vegas Golden Flyer is: Pierre-Edouard Bellemare
UFA:
Forward: Jordan Weal, Chis VandeVelde
Defense: Michael Del Zotto, Nick Schultz
Goalie: Steve Mason
RFA:
Forward: Nick Cousins, Roman Lyubimov, Michael Vecchione
Defense: Shayne Gostisbehere (Signed 6 yr / $27 mil contract 6/9/17)
Cap room: $12.1 million / 16/23 NHL contracts
Hiring/Firings:
Carolina Hurricanes
36-31-15, 87 pts / 212GF(t-20th)/230GA(18th) / First pick: 12th
Did not qualify for playoffs.
Your Vegas Golden Hurricane is: Connor Brickley
UFA:
Forward: Jay McClement, Derek Ryan
Defense: Matt Tennyson
RFA:
Forward: Teuvo Teravainen (Signed 2 yr / $5.72 mil deal 6/15/17), Brock McGinn
Cap room: $25.7 million / 18/23 NHL contracts
Trades:
- Carolina trades a 2017 5th round pick to VGK in Brickley deal.
- Carolina Hurricanes acquire Trevor van Riemsdyk from Vegas Golden Knights
Hiring/Firings:
New Jersey Devils
28-40-14, 70 pts / 180GF(28th)/241GA(t-24th) / First pick: 1st (Up from 5th via draft lottery)
Did not qualify for the playoffs.
Your Vegas Golden Devil is: John Merrill
UFA:
Goalie: Keith Kinkaid
RFA:
Forward: Beau Bennett, Jacob Josefson, Stefan Noesen
Defense: Damon Severson
Cap room: $24.4 million / 13/23 NHL contracts
Trades:
Poll
Who do you think the Devils are going to take with the first overall pick?
This poll is closed
-
62%
Nolan Patrick
-
37%
Nico Hischier
Keep an eye out for the post-draft installment of KUWTM.