Las Vegas Golden Knights Mock Expansion Draft

The Las Vegas Golden Knights will select a roster on Wednesday which will included 22 players that they will sign and keep on their team.

I wanted to create my own Mock draft for the Las Vegas Golden Knights; however, what you see below is completely unrealistic because it doesn't account for the numerous trades with other teams and jockeying that will happen through this process. I simply went through and selected the best talent factoring in needs to build a team coupled with cost.

A few qualifiers going into the table below: For UFA's (unrestricted free agents - aka don't have an existing contract) I signed them to  a 3 year contract at 1-3 Million dollars (knowing that a swing of 1-2 million wasn't going to matter given where my cap space ended up). Those are the "Signing-UFA" players.
Some people end up slightly out of position (RW vs LW) but as a GM I'm forcing them to adapt for the sack of this mock.

Without further adieu, the Las Vegas mock Expansion Draft (2016-2017 stats):

Roster will start as such:

What I like about what I've chosen:
1. Total salary = $67MM which is above the $60MM floor but well below the $100MM ceiling with some hefty contracts but ample enough room to make a big move if need be plus a lot of the contracts are done in 1-2 rooms leaving lots of wiggle room as needed. You can choose to resign those that excel and let the others go to free agency.

2. Goal scoring, the Golden Knights have four 20 goal scorers from last year and eight players who scored at least 15 goals, that's a great core to choose from. You won't have a "star" but you will have a lot of above average talent.

3. Grinders, to go with the goal scorers you have - Bobby Ryan, TJ Oshie, Josh Anderson and Jimmy Hayes who not only don't shy away from contact but play good two way hockey.

4. Prospects, so teams can't offer a player who has 2 years of experience but certain names like Marko Dano, Kerby Rychel, Matt Dumba and Jake Dotchin slip through the cracks on technicalities, I pick them to help build a young core (with minimal investment) . I would hope the aged vets I select (Joe Thornton, Lee Stempniak and, Thomas Plekanec) can help coach them.
5. Speaking of age, my average of my team is 27.7 years old which would be the 11^th youngest team in the league.

6. I have 10 contracts extending beyond this year which means I can use money to resign the players making a meaningful impact and just as easily release the ones that aren't (50 games in) helping this team out.

7. Must have's in my opinion are Jonathan Marchessault, Petr Mrazek, Sami Vatenen, Trevor Van Riemsdyk, Matt Dumba and Joe Thornton.