New York Islanders Top 3 Expansion Draft Targets

Mar 21, 2017; Las Vegas, NV, USA; General overall aerial view of the Las Vegas Strip on Las Vegas Blvd including the Mandalay Bay resort and casino, Luxor hotel and casino, T-Mobile Arena, Monte Carlo resort and casino, MGM Grand Las Vegas hotela and casino and T-Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports /

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Feb 25, 2017; Columbus, OH, USA; New York Islanders center Brock Nelson (29) against the Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena. The Blue Jackets won 7-0. Mandatory Credit: Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports /

Brock Nelson

Brock Nelson haters, rejoice. If the Islanders protect those four defencemen or any four defencemen, Brock Nelson immediately becomes exposed.

There just isn’t a scenario that exists where the Islanders would rather expose Anders Lee or Josh Bailey in order to keep Brock Nelson.

For Vegas this is fantastic. In Brock Nelson, they have a player that can score 40-45 points in a season. For a played that fades in and out of games that’s outrageous. Imagine if he didn’t ghost for periods of the season? But for a team like Vegas, it’s even better.

You’d have to think that a player like Nelson would immediately jump to the upper echelon of the Vegas forward depth chart. Meaning he’d be given significantly more minutes and more of an attacking assignment rather than the 52% defensive zone starts he gets with the Isles.

For Isles fans, they finally lose that guy they love to hate, although there’s always Josh Bailey to throw enough daggers at.