Vegas Golden Knights: F James Neal Strong Possibility

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 8:33 p.m. ET

Fansided, Santagata JJ/FanSided via Puck Prose

Vegas Golden Knights: The last 72 hours have been hectic around the NHL, teams needing to make deadlines to trade players, release their protected player's list, re-sign players, etc. As we all the Predators left a pretty valuable forward unprotected, will Vegas jump on James Neal?

There's been a lot going on lately with the Vegas Golden Knights expansion draft coming tonight, but if you're like me, you've been following the latest news.

vegas golden knights

Jun 3, 2017; Nashville, TN, USA; Nashville Predators left wing James Neal (18) celebrates after scoring a goal against the Pittsburgh Penguins during the second period in game three of the 2017 Stanley Cup Final at Bridgestone Arena. Mandatory Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

And some teams have released their protected player's list for the expansion draft and some lists are surprising to a lot, and cream of the crop is not so bad for the Vegas Golden Knights come draft time.

A few players that raise some eyebrows that could possibly be playing for the Las Vegas Golden Knights are, Sami Vatanen, Bobby Ryan, James Neal and Mathew Dumba. Now all these players carry a decent salary cap hit, so having all four is unlikely but two of the four is a likely option for Vegas.

Just hypothetically speaking, Vegas could be looking at James Neal a UFA in 2018-2019, $5.5 million salaries and modified no movement clause(8 teams he can NOT be traded to), sparring Neal $5.5 mil to lock a solid top 6 forward is a definite option and something that has been rumored to possibly happen.

The 29-year-old forward has a fortitude of the regular season and playoff experience with 451 career points through 632 games.