Reflection

One thing I experienced this year that I will definitely remember was during the history assignment when I came across something I never knew about in hockey. I can honestly say that there is really nothing I don’t know about hockey in regards to rules, players, coaches, etc. However, while I was doing my history assignment on the Florida Panthers, I learned about the expansion draft. I have heard of it because I knew the Las Vegas Knights, who are entering the NHL this season, are going to have to go through it, but I didn’t know the full details. I thought it had to do with teams getting extra draft picks in the NHL draft, but I was totally wrong.

As I was reading about the Florida Panthers coming into the NHL back in the 1993, I looked to see how they got their players and saw a list of players that were taken from every NHL team. I was very confused at first at why that took place, so I immediately went to research it, and I found out when there is a new team that enters the NHL, every team has to protect certain players so they don’t get picked by the new team. According to NHL.com, clubs will have two options for players they wish to protect in the Expansion Draft. Teams could protect "Seven forwards, three defensemen and one goaltender or eight skaters (forwards/defensemen) and one goaltender.”

While I was looking through the list of players the Panthers selected that year, I saw some familiar names including one goalie that is a hall of famer in John Vanbiesbrouck. There were also a few players I recognized that just finished playing in the NHL as well. I was not to happy when I saw whom my favorite team gave up, as Glen Healy was a very good New York Islander. In a limited number of games, Healy won 66 games with the Islanders. "He was one of my favorite Islanders that wasn't on the cup winning teams," said Steve Harris, a lifelong Islander season ticket holder. "Its hard to see someone go like that, when you don't get anything in return."

I sort of felt like finding out something new about hockey can compare to a doctor learning about a new medicine or a teacher learning something new about the subject they teach. I felt like I am such an expert, but little did I know something that is so important in building franchises, I did not know about. Now that I think about it, I think to myself, what did I expect to have happen; random players just magically appear on teams. Also learning about this now was also important because I got to get an idea of what NHL teams are going through now when they have to protect players from going to Las Vegas. Not only do teams have to worry about losing free agents, teams now have to worry about players being picked up by another team, and like for the Panthers, they were able to get a Hall of Fame goalie from the Vancouver Canucks. I am so eager for the expansion draft this year to see who the next star player to leave a team is.

However, not every fan is thrilled about the expansion draft. Israel Chereb, a Montreal Canadian fan says "Im mad that there going to loseAlex Galchenyuv, one of the Canadens forwards, because they cant afford him and he is going to maybe go to Vegas."

As a fan of hockey, I get very into how teams are run. This makes a general managers job that much tougher to make sure they don’t make a huge mistake. As I did more research, I spent more of my own time looking at whom the Florida Panthers may lose in the expansion draft since that relates to my beat. There are so many players the Panthers are going to want to protect that they are likely to lose a very good player, as will other teams. "I really hope they don't lose a good defensemen," said Allysa Lord. "I can live with a forward moving on because I feel like Springfield (AHL affiliate of the Panthers) has some promising players, but defensemen don't magically appear."

It makes next season’s NHL season that much more interesting. I was in pre-school the last time a new team entered the NHL, so even though I like to think of myself a fan my whole life, I can’t remember one thing about that draft. It will be extremely interesting to see how players from different teams come together and play as one. It’s like they have a little practice time and then they are in real NHL games so I wonder how they will do their first few games getting used to playing together in a new system with a new coach.

As I reflect back on everything that I have done this semester with my blog, I am so happy that I choose something I would be very into. By doing research and blog posts, I got myself extremely interested In the expansion draft which I probably would have not known about had I not chosen this topic. This also helped me realize that the best way I can be a writer is by choosing to write about stuff I like, and by picking hockey, I really enjoyed all my blog posts. I am also definitely interested in continuing my blog and to even write about the expansion draft as some of my stories. With my knowledge of the game, I think I could come up with interesting blogs to put on my website about players who leave to the Las Vegas Knights and what their statistics were.