Toronto Maple Leafs: The Most Egregiously Dumb and Ridiculous Rule

The Toronto Maple Leafs will have an interesting decision to make next summer.

The NHL is going to welcome yet another team to the fold next year, bringing the total up to something like 86, and the Toronto Maple Leafs are going to have to figure out who they want to let Seattle take off their roster.

While that is a discussion for another post, the rules state that the Leafs can either protect 11 players or nine, depending on whether or not they want to protect four defensemen.

At this point, that probably means the Toronto Maple Leafs either protect Justin Holl or Alex Kerfoot, but like I said, we’ll  table that for now.  Today I want to talk about the dumbest rule in NHL history.

Possibly in the entire history of sports.

The NHL’s Most Ridiculous Rule

The NHL made an error when they gave a sweetheart deal for the expansion draft to the Vegas Golden Knights.  The old expansion drafts – think Minnesota, Columbus, Nashville – where table scraps from an already bad meal.

In 1998 the Predators got a bunch of players who reached their peaks in 1988 (example, Al Iafrate) and were guaranteed to struggle, which they did.

In contrast, the Knights were able to get such favorable rules about protecting players that they were able to make trades that allowed them to get Shea Theodore and Nate Schmidt, two of the better defenseman in the NHL.

William Karlson, Marc-Andre Fleury, Jon Marchessault, Reilly Smith and Alex Tuch in addition to three first round picks and two second round picks.

There is a reason that the Knights have won two division titles, five playoff rounds and gone to the Stanley Cup Final in their three seasons.  That reason is that the NHL gave them a sweetheart deal that gave them a much better team than any other expansion team, or frankly, most of the teams in the NHL.

Three teams had to pay them a first rounder in order to get them to avoid taking a player the rules wouldn’t let them protect (Jets, Blue Jackets and Islanders) and now they are better than all three of those teams (as well as all but maybe five other teams).

But the sweetheart deal doesn’t end there, and that is where the dumbest rule in NHL history comes into play: Not only is Vegas one of the NHL’s best teams because of the expansion draft rules, but they do not have to participate in this year’s draft.

That’s right: After being gifted an instant contender, Vegas doesn’t have to protect anyone while the other 30 teams do.

That is a joke.  What was the NHL thinking when they agreed to this?