The NHL Expansion Draft is coming up soon, at the NHL Awards on Wednesday, June 21st. Las Vegas will host the new NHL team at T-Mobile Arena. The team called the Vegas Golden Knights are the new NHL Expansion team and each time there is a new Expansion team, they are allowed to draft one player from each of the 30 other teams. Each team can protect either 7 forwards, 3 defenseman and 1 goalie or 8 skaters and 1 goalie. All 1st and 2nd year players, and unsigned drafted players are exempt from being drafted. The Vegas Golden Knights will also be receiving the 6th pick in the 2017 NHL Draft.

Each team will likely lose an important asset because the Golden Knights will probably only take players under age 31 for safety, as those players are young and should be able to play longer than the veterans. Some of the top players likely to be drafted are Ducks’ RW Jakob Silfverberg, Wild’s D Marco Scandella, Predator’s C Colton Sissons, Penguin’s G Marc-Andre Fluery, and Maple Leafs’ C Leo Komarov. All of these players are either just finding their game or still have some game left in them. Colton Sissons is likely to be protected after having an unbelievable postseason with Nashville. The Vegas Golden Knights have already signed three non-NHLers: Reid Duke, Vadim Shipcahynov, and Tomas Hyka.

The Vegas Golden Knights are likely to not be a playoff team for a few years, but the Wild are well known for making the Western Conference Finals in just their 3rd season of play back in 2003, as an Expansion team. The Golden Knights have been fairly criticized as more of a 100% money, 0% hockey, reasoning as to why Las Vegas is getting a hockey team. I believe it was not a great move by the NHL for the fans morale. A popular and devoted city like Seattle is a town most fans believe deserves a hockey team. Especially after their basketball team left not too long ago. For now, all the fans can do is wait and see how this Expansion plays out.

The second round of the NHL playoffs wrapped up last Wednesday. Two game 7s occurred, while the other two series ended in six games.

The Nashville Predators took down the St. Louis Blues in 6 games. The Predators look to be the real deal this year as they swept the Blackhawks in the first round then went on to defeat the Blues in the second round. Their goaltender, Pekka Rinne, has been outstanding.

The other Western Conference team to advance were the Anaheim Ducks. The Ducks defeated the Oilers in 7 games. Their captain, Ryan Getzlaf, has been very dominate for the Ducks, and is playing like a true leader. He’s 3rd in the league with 15 playoff points.

The Ducks and Predators will start their series on Friday, May 12th at 8pm CT. My prediction is that the Predators will win this series in 6 games.

Now on to the East, where the surprising Ottawa Senators are heading to the Eastern Conference final. They haven’t made the conference final since 2007. The Senators defeated the New York Rangers in 6 games; they have been led by captain Erik Karlsson. He’s playing through many injuries, but continues to play excellent.

They will get ready to face the defending champions, the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Penguins defeated the Washington Capitals for a second straight year, in the second round. This is a recurring thing for the Capitals as they haven’t passed the second round since 1998. Even with the addition of Kevin Shattenkirk this season, they couldn’t break their streak. Many Penguins players played great including Evgeni Malkin who leads the league with 18 playoff points, and 13 assists, and Jake Guentzel who leads with 9 goals.

The Penguins and Senators will begin their series Saturday, May 13th at 6pm CT. My prediction is that the Penguins will win this series in 7 games.