New York Islanders: 3 things the Isles can learn from the Golden Knights

The Vegas Golden Knights are far and away the best story in the NHL this year. They could be the best in all sports. They have set a high standard. Here are three things they did this year that the New York Islanders can learn from.

The New York Islanders are finally heading upward in terms of rebuilding the culture within the organization. Bringing in Lou Lamoriello was a great move, but the rebuild is far from complete.

The Vegas Golden Knights came into the league and are already on their way to their first Stanley Cup. There are a lot of reasons why they are so successful. But, there are a few glaring things they have done right.

A lot of teams can learn a few things from how the Knights built their team.

I’m not going to get into the NHL Expansion Draft rules and if they are just or not. It is bound to happen again when the league expands and I’ll cross that bridge then.

Plus, the things the Isles should take away from the Knights have nothing to do with the expansion draft. Just things they can do to change the culture.

Let’s start with the first thing they can learn.

The Vegas Golden Knights took players teams found expendable and turned some of them into stars. What other teams did not protect, the Knights did.

The expansion draft still allows teams to protect their top players. Even if a team finds more players valuable than they can protect, then they can make a trade for the team to not select them.

So, what that means is that every player on the list that was open to the Golden Knights to select in the expansion draft was not valuable enough to their original team to keep around.

This can help the New York Islanders in many ways. If Lou Lamoriello comes in and has some players he likes, that his current team might not use properly or is willing to give up, he should pick up the phone and get the deal done.

The Knights did not have to work around the concept of a trade or negotiations, but they still saw what teams did not protect and ran with it.

Lou can do the same thing. Reaching out to teams and going toward players who would likely be unprotected again if there were to be another draft to try to get them.

Having a few players on a team playing with chips on their shoulders and wanting to prove the team who did not value them wrong is part of the formula for some great hockey.

The Islanders, because of the Golden Knights this year, should be inspired to find another team’s trash and turn it into their treasure.

Let’s dive into another thing the Isles can learn from the Golden Knights.