Las Vegas will have some advantages over Columbus and Minnesota, which followed Nashville (1998) and Atlanta (1999) in the previous wave. The Wild's first edition wasn't that bad, but they finished 14th out of 15 teams in the Western Conference. The Wild that season had plenty of "Casey Stengel moments," Lynn's label in reference to the manager of the 1962 New York Mets. Columbus grabbed left wing Geoff Sanderson, a 30-goal scorer that first season, but netted little else from the expansion draft. Next year, that yet-unnamed team will build a roster from scratch, just like the Wild and Blue Jackets did 17 years before them.

Source: New Zealand Herald June 29, 2016 07:00 UTC