The day is finally upon us! The player selections for the Vegas Golden Knights is due to be announced tonight during the NHL Awards Show - which, given the NHL’s recent history with announcements, will probably be delayed until tomorrow night.

If all goes according to plan, the show will air tonight at 8pm EDT on NBCSN and Sportsnet. The Vegas selections will be made throughout the show, in order of worst regular season standing to best - so we’ll get the Vegas selection from the Colorado Avalanche first, and the Washington Capitals last. With this format, we should know fairly early in the evening which player has been selected from our Detroit Red Wings.

In preparation for tonight’s announcement, Vegas GM George McPhee submitted his final list to the NHL at 10am EDT (7am in Vegas). Now that the final list is submitted, you can absolutely expect the rumors to start flying about who’s been taken from where. We will keep this space updated as rumors, and official announcements, come available. If you need a reminder on who was protected and exposed from each team, head here for the link to full team roster protections. Be sure to check back here often, and LGRW!

Colorado Avalanche

Rumors - N/A

Selection - Calvin Pickard

Vancouver Canucks

Rumors - N/A

Selection - Luca Sbisa

Arizona Coyotes

Rumors - N/A

Selection - Teemu Pulkkinen

New Jersey Devils

Rumors - Jon Merrill

Selection - Jon Merrill

Buffalo Sabres

Rumors - William Carrier

Selection - William Carrier

Detroit Red Wings

Rumors - Supposedly, Ken Holland is refusing to pay any assets to direct Vegas towards or away from any player or players.

Well.....um....

Just remember, this isn’t confirmed. Could Kenny have lied to us and actually struck a deal?

Selection - Tomas Nosek

Dallas Stars

Rumors - It’s being reported that Cody Eakin will be selected by Vegas. No indication that this was at Dallas’ request:

Selection - Cody Eakin

Florida Panthers

Rumors - The Panthers are not one of the teams rumored to be paying “protection money” despite leaving players like Jason Demers and Johnathan Marchessault exposed. This seems odd, if true, and would be shameful mismanagement of assets. And to make matters worse, we are hearing rumblings that the Panthers could even be sending Marchessault to Vegas in exchange for the Golden Knights selecting Reilly Smith. That still seems pretty bad...

Looks like there’s confirmation on at least the Marchessault part of this:

Selection - Jonathan Marchessault

Los Angeles Kings

Rumors - LA will possibly lose a defender:

Selection - Brayden McNabb

Carolina Hurricanes

Rumors - N/A

Selection - Connor Brickley

Winnipeg Jets

Rumors - N/A

Selection - Chris Thorburn

Philadelphia Flyers

Rumors - Bellemare is possibly heading to a new city:

And now we seem to have confirmation, leaving only the actual selection as a formality:

Selection - Pierre Edouard Bellemare

Tampa Bay Lightning

Rumors - There have been rumblings that Steve Yzerman is giving up additional assets to keep Vegas away from some young defender(s) not officially protected.

Those rumors must be true based on the fine print in this tweet drom NHL Numbers:

Selection - Jason Garrison

New York Islanders

Rumors - The Isles are supposedly getting Vegas to take the contract of Mikhail Grabovski, and stay away from current roster players Strome, deHaan, and Nelson per Arthur Staple. This deal could include a 1st round pick going to Vegas, according to Newsday Sports:

Arthur Staple was saying before he heard it was someone who didn’t get regular NHL time last year, so this would fit the bill.

Selection - JF Berube

Nashville Predators

Rumors - James Neal

Selection - James Neal

Calgary Flames

Rumors - Ummmm.... there has to be protection money paid here... right?

Selection - Deryk Engelland

Toronto Maple Leafs

Rumors - Still waiting on a reliable source, but Brendan Liepsic’s name is being tossed around a fair bit...

Selection - Brendan Liepsic

Boston Bruins

Rumors - Hey, Peter and I got one right!

Selection - Colin Miller

Ottawa Senators

Rumors - Lots of chatter that the player selected with be defenseman Marc Methot.

Selection - Marc Methot

San Jose Sharks

Rumors - Seriously, the Golden Knights should be getting some kind of payment on most of these picks:

Selection - David Schlemko

St. Louis Blues

Rumors - I don’t speak French, but this sure looks like David Perron will be a Golden Knight:

Selection - David Perron

New York Rangers

Rumors -

Looks like it could be Lindberg instead:

Selection - Oscar Lindberg

Edmonton Oilers

Rumors - Another one bites the dust... see, it’s funny because the desert is a dusty place... shut up....

Selection - Griffin Reinhart

Montreal Canadiens

Rumors - It looks like youngster Charles Hudon coukd be saved from the draft. No word on if protection was paid for, but I’d imagine Montreal made some kind of deal:

We are also seeing some activity on the idea of Brandon Davidson being the selection from the Habs:

Scratch that:

This seems to be the new consensus. Emelin did “like” the Golden Knights on Instagram (that’s not a joke)...

It’s confirmed. It is Emelin. And Vegas took him on purpose. No extra deal in place.

Selection - Alexei Emelin

Anaheim Ducks

Rumors - We’ve known for a while that the Ducks would pay some type of protection money, but Bob McKenzie dropped this tweet in the wee hours of the morning:

Shea Theodore seems like a small price to pay here, but it’s believable. He’s a good up-and-coming blue line presence, and is a good get for Vegas.

Selection - Clayton Stoner

Minnesota Wild

Rumors - Supposedly, there were talks occuring to protect Matt Dumba (whom Vegas really wants), Marco Scandella, and Eric Staal. In a report from the Minneapolis Star Tribune, this will cost them Erik Haula and another young prospect. According to Michael Russo, that prospect is Alex Tuch:

Selection - Erik Haula

Columbus Blue Jackets

Rumors - Columbus is spending assets to keep Vegas away from certain players, and possibly ship out David Clarkson’s contract. However, the report we’ve seen conflicts somewhat with who the Blue Jackets ended up protecting. There’s likely some truth in here somewhere, we just can’t be sure of what that truth is right now.

Now we’re getting that William Karlsson WAS offered up, along with picks, so Vegas would avoid certain exposed players:

Selection - William Karlsson

Chicago Blackhawks

Rumors - Trevor van Riemsdyk was apparently left exposed on the condition that the Golden Knights would also trade for Marcus Kruger.

Selection - Trevor van Riemsdyk

Pittsburgh Penguins

Rumors - Again, Bob McKenzie with the scoop on additional assets moving out to guarantee Marc-Andre Fleury, who waived his NMC, is selected:

Selection - Marc-Andre Fleury

Washington Capitals

Rumors - I dont even know what’s real anymore:

Selection - Nate Schmidt