James Neal

The NHL offseason was a little grander than usual. This was all due to the expansion draft for the 31st NHL team, the Vegas Golden Knights. It appears Vegas’ strategy is to grow during the draft. They opted to get future picks instead of taking the best available player from each team. They could have had Matt Dumba, Sami Vatanen, or a plethora of good goalies (Mrazek, Raanta, or Grubauer). Instead, the Golden Knights have 27 draft picks in the next 3 drafts just from all the side-deals they made with teams to not take…

The Nashville Predators have been the hottest team in the playoffs. Nashville has lost only four times so far. They swept the Chicago Blackhawks and limited them to three goals, which is no easy feat. They were the first team to clinch a conference finals birth by defeating the St. Louis Blues in six games. They beat the Anaheim Ducks in six games to get to their first Stanley Cup Final performance. With all that, the Predators are the first 16 seed to make it to the Stanley Cup finals. Nashville is a true underdog team, and…