The Golden Knights announce that J-F Berube is the New York Islanders selection in the NHL Expansion Draft and an additional trade was made.
The Vegas Golden Knights roster was officially announced at the Expansion Draft during the NHL Awards at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Announced by Owner Bill Foley and General Manager George McPhee, the Golden Knights selected goaltender JF Berube from the New York Islanders. Berube joins Marc-Andre Fleury and Calvin Picard as the goaltenders chosen. In addition to this selection, the teams negotiated a trade.
In a separate deal, the Islanders traded Forward Mikhail Grabovski, Defenseman Jake Bischoff, a 2017 first round pick and a 2019 second round pick to the Golden Knights. This deal was done in order for security that none of the key players on the Islanders unprotected list would be selected.
The Islanders now have $5 million in cap space created by trading Grabovski which will be helpful for the remainder of the offseason. His contract ran through the end of the 2017-2018 season.
The selection of Berube isn’t a huge loss for the Islanders as it was an already crowded net with Thomas Griess and Jaroslav Halak on the roster. That will be the combination going into the season and General Manager Garth Snow can now improve the team in other areas. The rumor mill will surface once again on the Islanders search for a top-six forward which now looks more potential to add with the additional cap space.
They also have additional assets to move via trade since Calvin de Haan was not selected and Travis Hamonic was already protected. Both players have been mentioned in potential trade rumors.
The pressure now shifts to Garth Snow to add that big scorer to team with John Tavares and convince the Islanders captain to sign a long-term extension once Jul. 1 arrives.
