Tampa Bay Lightning offensive prospect Nikita Gusev has made his way to the Las Vegas Golden Knights as part of a trade deal at the 2017 NHL Expansion Draft.
The hockey world was thrown into turmoil last night at the 2017 NHL Expansion Draft. According to the rules of the Expansion Draft, the Las Vegas Golden Knights were forced to select at least one player from each of the 30 clubs in the NHL to build their roster. This means the Tampa Bay Lightning were guaranteed to lose at least one player to the newly founded Golden Knights.
It turns out; the Tampa Bay Lightning would part ways with more than one player in the Expansion Draft. The good news is, this may not be a bad thing. In fact, it may have opened the door to many good things for the Bolts in the upcoming season.
The first player to make their way to Sin City from the Tampa Bay Lightning was defenseman Jason Garrison, who was selected by the Golden Knights; however, this was not the end of the transactions between these two teams. There was also an interesting trade offer that made its way to the draft floor.
Tampa Bay Lightning
Tampa Bay Lightning Vice President and General Manager Steve Yzerman worked out a deal which saw Lightning offensive prospect Nikita Gusev make his way to the Golden Knights along with a 2nd Round Pick in the 2017 NHL Draft and a 4th Round Pick in the 2018 NHL Draft.
There is one definite downside to losing a player like Nikita Gusev. Gusev has all the potential to transform himself into the next Nikita Kucherov. Gusev played in a total of 57 games with SKA St. Petersburg of the KHL last season.
In that amount of time, he was able to bring home 24 goals and 47 assists for a total of 71 points. If these numbers don’t scream Kucherov-level potential, we don’t know what does.
If these numbers don’t scream Kucherov-level potential, we don’t know what does. Yes, we will give you the play on the internation level varies from that of the NHL, but that doesn’t make it any less of a difficult task to put the puck in the back of the net.
Judging by the looks of things, the trade seems to be a masterfully crafted plan in order to keep the Las Vegas Golden Knights from putting their hands on someone like defensemen Jake Dotchin and/or Slater Koekkoek.
As we have mentioned previously, there are many changes on the horizon for the Tampa Bay Lightning. With the stress of the Expansion Draft behind them, the Lightning can turn their attention towards the NHL Draft, where Yzerman uses his magic to build the team of the future, and the Free Agency Period, where the Bolts can re-sign some of their talents in need of new contracts and shop for any missing pieces to the puzzle.
Next: Jason Garrison Headed To The Las Vegas Golden Knights
Hopefully, the upcoming changes will help the Lightning right the ship and come back in the 2017-18 season even stronger than ever before. The Bolts are entering their 25th Anniversary Season. What better time to show the rest of the league what the Tampa Bay Lightning are really made of.