Where are they now? A look back at the Knights’ expansion draft picks
The Golden Knights’ 2017 expansion draft seems forever ago.
The Knights used that draft to build part of the foundation that brought them a Stanley Cup championship in 2023.
Time has made the team’s haul less and less a part of the fabric of the organization, however. The Knights lost two Original Misfits this summer and almost every player they selected in the expansion draft is no longer with the team.
Here’s a look back at the 30 players the club picked and where they are now:
Anaheim Ducks: Clayton Stoner, D
Stoner sat out the 2017-18 season with an undisclosed injury and never played professional hockey again.
The Knights still got something out of the selection. They acquired defenseman Shea Theodore as part of a deal to induce them to take Stoner. Theodore, who is entering the last year of his contract, remains one of the Knights’ most important players.
Arizona Coyotes: Teemu Pulkkinen, F
Pulkkinnen led the Chicago Wolves, then the Knights’ American Hockey League affiliate, in points with 65 his one season with the organization.
He played in Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League last season and had 13 points in 37 games with the Kunlun Red Star.
Boston Bruins: Colin Miller, D
Miller had a career-high 41 points the Knights’ inaugural season and helped the team reach the Stanley Cup Final.
He has never approached those same heights since.
Miller is still in the NHL, as he signed a one-year, $1.5 million deal with the Winnipeg Jets this offseason. The Jets will be his fourth team in six seasons since the Knights traded him to the Sabres in June 2019.
Buffalo Sabres: William Carrier, F
Carrier became an anchor on the Knights’ fourth line and helped the team win the Stanley Cup in 2023.
He scored 99 points in 372 games during his seven seasons with team, showcasing more of an offensive game than he ever did in Buffalo.
Carrier left the Knights to sign a six-year deal with the Carolina Hurricanes on July 1.
Calgary Flames: Deryk Engelland, D
Engelland became one of the Knights’ most recognizable players his three seasons with the team. He will forever be remembered for his emotional speech before the team’s first-ever home game Oct. 10, 2017.
Engelland stayed with the organization after his playing career ended in 2020, becoming a special assistant to owner Bill Foley.
Carolina Hurricanes: Connor Brickley, F
The Hurricanes gave up a fifth-round pick so the Knights would take Brickley, whose contract was about to expire.
He became a free agent a few weeks after being picked.
Brickley appeared in 58 NHL games after that with the Florida Panthers and New York Rangers. He last played for EC Red Bull Salzburg in Austria in 2020.
Chicago Blackhawks: Trevor van Riemsdyk, D
The Knights traded van Riemsdyk right away to Carolina for a second-round pick.
The 33-year-old has spent the last four seasons with the Washington Capitals. He had 14 points in 70 games last year.
Colorado Avalanche: Calvin Pickard, G
The Knights traded Pickard to the Toronto Maple Leafs a few months after the expansion draft in exchange for Tobias Lindberg and a sixth-round pick.
Pickard, 32, proceeded to bounce between the NHL and AHL before finding a home with the Edmonton Oilers. He started two playoff games for the Oilers last season, earning the win in Game 4 of the team’s second-round series against the Vancouver Canucks.
Columbus Blue Jackets: William Karlsson, F
The Blue Jackets gave the Knights a first- and second-round pick, as well as defenseman David Clarkson, to get them to take Karlsson.
The deal wound up giving the expansion team a franchise cornerstone.
Karlsson had a breakout season the Knights’ inaugural campaign, scoring a career-high 43 goals. He also developed into one of the NHL’s best defensive centers.
Karlsson has 367 points in 502 games with the Knights and was a key part of the franchise’s Stanley Cup championship in 2023. He has three years remaining on the $47.2 million contract extension he signed in 2019.
Dallas Stars: Cody Eakin, F
Eakin scored 27 points in 80 games the Knights’ inaugural season and was a solid player for them for three years.
What he is remembered most for, however, is being called for a controversial major penalty in Game 7 of the team’s first-round series against the San Jose Sharks in 2018. The Sharks then rallied from a 3-0 deficit in the third period to win the game 5-4 in overtime.
Eakin struggled the following season and was traded to Winnipeg. He last played with the SCL Tigers in Switzerland in 2023.
Detroit Red Wings: Tomas Nosek, F
Nosek was a bottom-six fixture the Knights’ early years and was a trusted penalty killer.
He spent four seasons with the organization before signing a two-year deal with the Bruins. Nosek played for the New Jersey Devils last season and signed a one-year deal to return to the team July 1.
Edmonton Oilers: Griffin Reinhart, D
Reinhart, the No. 4 pick in the 2012 draft, never clicked with the Oilers. A change of scenery wasn’t able to get his career going, either.
Reinhart spent two years playing for the AHL’s Chicago Wolves and bounced around afterwards. He scored 32 points in 53 games for the Belfast Giants in Northern Ireland in 2021-22.
Florida Panthers: Jonathan Marchessault, F
This selection paved the way for the Knights’ victory over the Panthers in the 2023 Stanley Cup Final.
Florida not only gave up the Conn Smythe Trophy winner for playoff MVP in Marchessault, they threw in forward Reilly Smith for just a fourth-round pick.
Marchessault and Smith became two of the most important players in Knights history. They rank first and third, respectively, in goals with the franchise.
Smith was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins in June 2023. Marchessault signed a five-year, $27.5 million contract with the Nashville Predators on July 1.
Los Angeles Kings: Brayden McNabb, D
McNabb has been a rock on the Knights’ blue line since being selected.
He’s appeared in 502 games with the team, tied for the second-most in franchise history. He hasn’t sat out once the past two seasons.
McNabb is known for his physical defensive game but can provide offense as well. He scored a career-high 26 points last season. The 33-year-old is entering the last year of his contract.
Minnesota Wild: Erik Haula, F
The Knights got Alex Tuch in exchange for taking Haula off the Wild’s hands.
Both players were key pieces early in the franchise’s history. They later were part of important trades that led to the Knights’ first championship.
Haula scored 29 goals the team’s inaugural season, but was dealt to the Hurricanes in June 2019 in exchange for center Nicolas Roy.
Tuch became an offensive star with the Knights and was central to the Jack Eichel trade with the Sabres in November 2021.
Haula scored 35 points in 76 games with the Devils last season. Tuch scored a career-high 79 points with Buffalo in 2022-23, before adding another 59 last season.
Montreal Canadiens: Alexei Emelin, D
The Knights traded Emelin to Nashville for a third-round pick a few days after the expansion draft.
He lasted one season with the Predators and has spent the last several years in the KHL.
Emelin had 12 points in 59 games between Dinamo Minsk and Spartak Moscow in 2022-23.
Nashville Predators: James Neal, F
Neal gave the Knights a legit goal scorer right out of the gates. He scored the first two goals in franchise history in a 2-1 win over Dallas on Oct. 6, 2017.
He finished with 25 goals the Knights’ inaugural season and then signed a five-year deal with the Flames in July 2018.
Neal wasn’t a great fit in Calgary. He was traded to the Oilers in July 2019 and was bought out before the 2021-22 season. He played 19 games with the St. Louis Blues the following year and hasn’t appeared in the NHL since.
New Jersey Devils: Jon Merrill, D
Merrill was a good locker-room presence for the Knights and was solid when called upon during the franchise’s first three seasons.
He’s played for Detroit, Montreal and Minnesota since leaving the organization. He’s entering the final season of a three-year extension he signed with the Wild in 2022.
New York Islanders: Jean-Francois Berube, G
The Knights received a first- and second-round pick to select Berube, a pending free agent.
The team let him walk and used the first-round pick they acquired to take defenseman Erik Brannstrom 15th overall in the 2017 draft. Brannstrom was later the key piece in the package the Knights sent to the Ottawa Senators to acquire future captain Mark Stone in February 2019.
Berube appeared in just 19 NHL games after the expansion draft for Chicago and Columbus.
New York Rangers: Oscar Lindberg, F
Lindberg scored 23 points in 98 games for the Knights before being included with Brannstrom in the Stone trade.
He played just 30 games for Ottawa and then spent a year playing in Switzerland. Lindberg played with Skelleftea AIK in Sweden last season and scored 51 points in 50 games.
Ottawa Senators: Marc Methot, D
The Knights took Methot, then flipped him to Dallas for goalie Dylan Ferguson and a second-round pick.
Methot appeared in 45 games for the Stars but was out of hockey by 2019.
Ferguson appeared in one game for the Knights and stayed in their system until 2022. He played in two games for the Senators in 2023 before spending last season with the KHL’s Dinamo Minsk.
Philadelphia Flyers: Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, F
Bellemare was a key bottom-six forward and penalty killer his two seasons with the Knights.
He’s moved around since, spending two years in Colorado, two with the Tampa Bay Lightning and one with the Seattle Kraken.
The 39-year-old is currently an unrestricted free agent.
Pittsburgh Penguins: Marc-Andre Fleury, G
The Knights got a second-round pick from the Penguins in addition to their first star.
Fleury went 117-60-14 his four seasons with the team and won the Vezina Trophy in 2021. He was traded to Chicago that offseason for minor-league forward Mikael Hakkarainen.
Fleury was later dealt to the Wild in March 2022. He became the second-winningest goalie in NHL history in Minnesota and is expected to play one more season before retiring.
San Jose Sharks: David Schlemko, D
The Knights shipped Schlemko to Montreal for a fifth-round pick the day after the expansion draft.
He played 55 games for the Canadiens the next two seasons and has been out of hockey since.
St. Louis Blues: David Perron, F
Perron was one of the Knights’ standouts their inaugural season, scoring 66 points in 70 games.
He then hit the free-agent market and went back to St. Louis, where he won a Stanley Cup in 2019.
Perron spent four seasons with the Blues, then two with Detroit. He signed a two-year deal to join the Senators on July 1.
Tampa Bay Lightning: Jason Garrison, D
The Knights took on Garrison’s contract for a second- and fourth-round pick, as well as the rights to Russian player Nikita Gusev.
Garrison played eight games during the team’s inaugural season and appeared in 17 the following year with Edmonton. He then spent two seasons in Sweden. The 39-year-old last played in the AHL in 2022.
Gusev signed with the Knights in April 2019 but never played for them. He was traded to New Jersey that offseason.
The 32-year-old scored 44 points in 66 games his first NHL season, but recorded just 10 the following year for the Devils and Panthers.
Gusev opted to continue his career in the KHL and scored 89 points in 68 games for the Moscow Dynamo last season.
Toronto Maple Leafs: Brendan Leipsic, F
Leipsic appeared in 44 games the Knights’ inaugural season before being traded to Vancouver in the middle of the campaign.
He had stints with the Canucks, Kings and Washington Capitals before continuing his career in Russia. He scored 44 points in 65 games for the KHL’s Metallurg Magnitogorsk last season.
Vancouver Canucks: Luca Sbisa, D
Sbisa scored 14 points in 30 games the Knights’ inaugural season, but was limited by injuries. He left after one year to sign a free-agent deal with the Islanders.
Sbisa, 34, also played for the Jets and Predators before joining the Sharks as a development coach in 2022.
Washington Capitals: Nate Schmidt, D
Schmidt quickly became one of the Knights’ most popular players after scoring a career-high 36 points in 76 games their inaugural season.
He was suspended for 20 games the following year for a violation of the NHL/NHLPA Performance Enhancing Substances Program.
Schmidt was one of the Knights’ top defensemen for three seasons before being traded to the Canucks in October 2020. He spent the last three years in Winnipeg. The Jets bought out Schmidt’s contract this summer, leading to him signing a one-year deal with the Panthers.
Winnipeg Jets: Chris Thorburn, F
The Knights received the 13th overall pick in 2017 and a third-round pick to take Thorburn and his expiring contract off the Jets’ hands. Winnipeg got the 24th overall pick in 2017 in exchange.
The Knights used their new selection to take center Nick Suzuki, who was later traded to the Canadiens in September 2018 in exchange for left wing Max Pacioretty. Suzuki is now Montreal’s captain.
Thorburn never played for the Knights. He signed with the Blues and played 51 games for them the next two seasons.
The 41-year-old hasn’t played professionally since 2019.
Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on X. Contact Danny Webster at dwebster@reviewjournal.com. Follow @DannyWebster21 on X.
