Marc-Andre Fleury, Marc Methot, James Neal headline Golden Knights' expansion draft haul
— -- Marc-Andre Fleury is already a champion, now he's a Golden Knight.
The veteran goaltender was selected by the Vegas Golden Knights in their expansion draft, the results of which were announced Wednesday during the NHL Awards telecast.
Fleury, who was on hand for the ceremony, received the largest cheer in front of the Las Vegas fans and goes from the two-time reigning Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins to the desert expansion team.
"I'm not looking to be the face of much," Fleury said when asked of being his new team's star player. "I'm just trying to come and play hockey."
His old team's star player, Sidney Crosby, spoke glowingly of the netminder.
"He's going to be so important for their team with his experience and the kind of person he is," Crosby said following the NHL Awards. "You couldn't have a better guy."
The Golden Knights' selections were revealed in reverse order of their originating team's regular-season standings, meaning the Colorado Avalanche's player ( Calvin Pickard) came off the board first, while the Washington Capitals' pick ( Nate Schmidt) was announced last.
With their first expansion draft picks, Vegas selected Pickard, a goalie, forwards William Carrier, Cody Eakin, Jonathan Marchessault, Teemu Pulkkinen, Tomas Nosek, and defensemen Brayden McNabb, Jon Merrill, Luca Sbisa.
James Neal was the biggest individual name revealed in the second round of expansion announcements. The veteran forward posted 41 points for the Stanley Cup Finals runner-up Nashville Predators during the regular season.
In addition to Neal, the Golden Knights also announced the selections of forwards Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, Connor Brickley, Chris Thorburn, defensemen Jason Garrison and Deryk Engelland, and goalie Jean-Francois Berube.
The selection of Berube from the New York Islanders brought a windfall for the Golden Knights, as they also acquired via trade forward Mikhail Grabovski, defenseman Jake Bischoff and two picks -- a 2017 first-round selection and 2019 second-round pick from the Isles.
Vegas got defensive for the third round of announcements, selecting five defensemen among the group of eight announced players.
Defensemen Alexei Emelin, Marc Methot, Colin Miller, Griffin Reinhart and David Schlemko were all picked by the Golden Knights, along with forwards Brendan Leipsic, Oscar Lindberg and David Perron.
In the fourth and final round of announcements, Vegas added two forwards ( Erik Haula and William Karlsson) and three defensemen ( Nate Schmidt, Clayton Stoner and Trevor van Riemsdyk) in addition to Fleury.
As part of other trades, the Knights acquired Reilly Smith from the Panthers and Nikita Gusev from the Lightning, as well as a bevvy of picks that were tied to some selections.
Vegas has something of a hometown talent on its roster, as well, thanks to the selection of Engelland from the Calgary Flames. Though Canadian, Engelland makes his offseason home in Las Vegas after spending two seasons playing for the Las Vegas Wranglers of the ECHL.
"What surprised me was the quality of some of our forwards that we were able to get out of this situation," Golden Knights owner Bill Foley said prior to the announcement of the team's expansion picks. "The people of Las Vegas are going to be happy with what we did. They're going to be pleasantly surprised."
The Golden Knights had to choose one player from each NHL team, with a composition of 14 forwards, nine defensemen, three goaltenders and four additional players from any position. Vegas had a pool of 673 players made available by the league's other 30 teams from which to choose.
Vegas coach Gerard Gallant already entered the evening with Reid Duke, a 21-year-old forward, on roster, who became the Golden Knights' first-ever player after agreeing to a three-year entry-level contract with the team in March.
The Golden Knights' first home game will be Oct. 10 against the Arizona Coyotes.
