Projecting the Golden Knights picks at the NHL expansion draft

June 21 will be a momentous day in the NHL as its newest franchise, the Vegas Golden Knights, will announce their selections in the 2017 expansion draft and round out their roster.

For those of you who don’t know how expansion drafts work, the Golden Knights will be allowed to choose one player from each of the other 30 franchises. The pre-existing clubs will have to submit a list of players—seven forwards, three defensemen, one goalie OR eight skaters and a goalie—they wish to protect from Vegas.

The rest, as long as they aren’t first or second-year players and unsigned draft choices can be snapped up.

With 30 selections, Vegas must pick at least 14 forwards, nine defensemen and three goalies while also keeping their team salary under a combined $73 million.

Here is how I think their roster could shape up come draft day:

Vegas Golden Knights projected expansion draft selections

PLAYER	POSITION	FORMER TEAM	‘16-17 SALARY
Boone Jenner	Center	Columbus Blue Jackets	$2.9 million
Cody Eakin	Center	Dallas Stars	$3.85 million
Trevor Lewis	Center	Los Angeles Kings	$2 million
Tomas Plekanec	Center	Montreal Canadiens	$6 million
Calle Jarnkrok	Center	Nashville Predators	$2 million
Alex Killorn	Center	Tampa Bay Lightning	$4.45 million
Mathieu Perreault	Center	Winnipeg Jets	$3 million
Matt Moulson	Left Wing	Buffalo Sabres	$5 million
Matt Nieto	Left Wing	Colorado Avalanche	$735,000
Jason Zucker	Left Wing	Minnesota Wild	$2 million
Magnus Paajarvi	Left Wing	St. Louis Blues	$700,000
Kerby Rychel	Left Wing	Toronto Maple Leafs	$863,333
Brad Richardson	Right Wing	Arizona Coyotes	$2.083 million
Alex Chiasson	Right Wing	Calgary Flames	$800,000
Lee Stempniak	Right Wing	Carolina Hurricanes	$2.5 million
Devante Smith-Pelly	Right Wing	New Jersey Devils	$1.3 million
Matt Read	Right Wing	Philadelphia Flyers	$3.625 million
Sami Vatanen	Defense	Anaheim Ducks	$4.875 million
Calvin de Haan	Defense	New York Islanders	$1.96 million
Trevor van Riemsdyk	Defense	Chicago Blackhawks	$825,000
Ryan Sproul	Defense	Detroit Red Wings	$625,000
Griffin Reinhart	Defense	Edmonton Oilers	$863,333
Alex Petrovic	Defense	Florida Panthers	$1.05 million
Fredrik Claesson	Defense	Ottawa Senators	$700,000
Brenden Dillon	Defense	San Jose Sharks	$3.27 million
Luca Sbisa	Defense	Vancouver Canucks	$3.6 million
Nate Schmidt	Defense	Washington Capitals	$812,500
Marc-Andre Fleury	Goalie	Pittsburgh Penguins	$5.75 million
Malcolm Subban	Goalie	Boston Bruins	$863,333
Antti Raanta	Goalie	New York Rangers	$1 million

This roster contains 17 forwards, 10 defensemen, three goalies and would come in at a total of $70,007,499, which would give the Golden Knights an additional $2,992,501 in cap space.