NHL Pulls Off Dual Expansion Draft/Awards Event In Las Vegas

The NHL hosted both its annual awards and Expansion Draft last night in Las Vegas, and the "doubling down" effort "worked because the league brought in more than a dozen of the top 100 players to present the awards and paraded them on stage to start the show." Presenters included Hockey HOFers Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Mario Lemieux, Bob Gainey and Denis Potvin. Avalanche G Calvin Pickard was the "first of the expansion players drafted" by the Golden Knights, and the "reality of just how many draft picks George McPhee managed to accumulate by agreeing to back off picking certain players began to add up" (EDMONTON SUN, 6/22).